


A Child In A War Zone

by soft_but_gremlin



Series: A Padawan at War (Again) [2]
Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Force Bond (Star Wars), Gen, Grief/Mourning, Injury, Past Slavery, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:53:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 36,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25344997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soft_but_gremlin/pseuds/soft_but_gremlin
Summary: Anakin knew some things for certain when he woke up on a strange ship full of identical troopers. His mom was dead. Master Qui-Gon was dead. And Obi-Wan might be the only person he had left in the whole galaxy.(Prequel to Padawan at War)
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, CC-2224 | Cody & Obi-Wan Kenobi, CT-7567 | Rex & Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker
Series: A Padawan at War (Again) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1792372
Comments: 493
Kudos: 965





	1. Chapter 1

Anakin knew several things as soon as he woke up.

The first thing he knew was that his mom was dead.

The second thing was that Mister Qui-Gon was dead too.

The third thing was that Obi-Wan, Mister Qui-Gon’s kid who didn’t really seem to like him, might be the only person he had left in the whole world.

The fourth thing was that water was too precious to waste on tears.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a durasteel-gray room with rows and rows of cots on wheels. There were machines beeping softly next to him, and one of them had a sensor that was attached to his finger. Obi-Wan was on the cot next to him, still sleeping. He had beeping machines too. This was _not_ Padmé’s ship.

A large droid was slowly rolling by the cots, observing each person in an occupied bed and skipping unoccupied beds. Anakin recognized it as a medical assistant droid, probably an FX-2 or an FX-3. He’d once fixed an FX-1 that had a faulty telescoping grasping arm, and the design looked fairly similar. He must be in some type of medical facility. Had someone blown up Padmé’s ship? He hoped Padmé was alright. She wasn’t on the ship, that’s for sure, but that was all Anakin was sure of.

The droid arrived at Anakin’s bed. “Hi,” he said. It was always polite to greet droids.

The droid observed him, then squealed in Binary, “ _Cadet General is awake!_ ”

‘Cadet General’ clearly referred to him, but Anakin couldn’t imagine what he’d done to deserve such a designation. “I’m Anakin, actually.”

A tall man wearing white armor with blue markings stalked up behind the droid, datapad in hand. Anakin froze. He reminded Anakin of the bounty hunters and security guards that the Hutts sent around Mos Espa sometimes. Attracting the attention of people like _that_ was never good.

“Hey, cadet,” the man said gently. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” Anakin answered promptly. He wanted the man to go away, but he didn’t want to risk making him angry.

“That’s good,” the man said. “Do you know who I am?”

“No sir,” Anakin said.

“My name is Kix, and I’m the Head Medic on this ship,” he said. “I’m going to ask you a few questions, alright?”

Anakin nodded. He wasn’t sure if he believed Mister Kix. He’d never actually seen a medic, but from what he’d heard, they don’t wear armor. Hutt space _was_ dangerous, though. Maybe even medics needed armor in Hutt space.

“Do you know the name of this ship?” Mister Kix asked.

“No sir.”

“Do you recognize this ship as somewhere you have been before?”

“No sir.”

“What’s your name?”

“Anakin, sir.”

“Just Anakin?”

“Anakin Skywalker, sir.”

“And how old are you?”

“Nine, sir.”

“Who was your Jedi Master?”

“I don’t have one, sir. Master Qui-Gon was taking me back to the Temple.”

“Who’s the current Chancellor?”

“Um, I don’t know. I’m from Tatooine, we’re not part of the Republic. Sir.” Anakin was getting more nervous with each question. He was answering each question honestly, but Mister Kix seemed disappointed with the answers he gave.

“What year is it, then?” Mister Kix asked.

Anakin gave the year, and Mister Kix frowned deeper at that. He didn’t know the answers Mister Kix wanted, but it wasn’t the ones Anakin was giving. He wondered how many more wrong answers he could give before Mister Kix got mad at him.

Mister Kix opened his mouth to ask another question, but before he could, another voice snapped, “Who the kriff are _you?_ ”

Anakin’s heart soared. Obi-Wan was awake!

“If you damage my equipment by trying any of your typical reckless maneuvers, General Kenobi, I’m going to sedate you,” Mister Kix said. Anakin risked a glance over. Obi-Wan didn’t have his lightsaber out, but he certainly looked ready to jump off his cot and tackle Mister Kix.

“It’s Padawan Kenobi, actually,” Obi-Wan said, and he didn’t sound scared at _all_. “And you haven’t answered my question.”

“I’m Chief Medical Officer Lieutenant Kix,” Mister Kix said. “And in the medbay I outrank everyone, General, so you can sit down and wait quietly for your turn.”

Mister Kix had said it so sternly Anakin flinched, and it wasn’t even directed at him.

Obi-Wan did sit down, but he didn’t look happy about it. “Never met a medic who wore armor,” he accused. “ _Or_ one who terrorizes children.”

Mister Kix glared at Obi-Wan, but his gaze turned concerned as he looked at Anakin. Anakin tried not to squirm, he didn’t know what Mister Kix _wanted_ from him.

“My apologies, kid,” Mister Kix said gently. “I don’t have a lot of experience working with young cadets, especially natborn ones.”

Anakin gave a nervous nod at him. He wasn’t sure how to handle a stranger apologizing to him. Only his mom had ever apologized to him before. Usually Anakin was supposed to apologize, even if it wasn’t his fault.

“I’m going to have Fixit here look you over while I talk to Kenobi, alright?” Mister Kix said, patting the FX droid. “Last we checked, your scans were fine, but considering this whole situation, we don’t want any unexpected complications popping up only to be missed.”

“What’s natborn mean?” Obi-Wan asked, as the droid started to scan Anakin, beeping out what it was doing every step of the way.

“Short for ‘natural born.’ Not a clone like the rest of us. I’m going to take your scans now, don’t fight me, got it?”

“Clone? Clone of who?”

“Jango Fett.”

“Jango Fett...You’re _Mandalorians?_ ” Obi-Wan asked, sounding relieved. Then, he tensed up again. “What did you do with my lightsaber?”

“Commander Cody probably has it,” Kix said. “Apparently he’s usually the one who finds it when you lose it. If he doesn’t have it, check with Commander Tano, she’s Torrent’s padawan.”

Anakin didn’t know why Obi-Wan was so relaxed about being on a ship full of Mandalorians. They were _bounty hunters_. Even though Qui-Gon had won Anakin fair and square, that didn’t stop Anakin from worrying that Watto might have put out a reward for his return. And who was to say that Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan didn’t have bounties of their own? The Jedi were the kind of people who tended to get into the sort of trouble that landed bounties on heads. And, of course, there were always people who would give a handsome reward for a live Force-sensitive, bounty or not. It really didn’t seem safe to Anakin to be on a ship full of Mandalorians.

Still, Obi-Wan trusted the Mandalorians. He seemed to feel _more_ safe around Mandalorians than regular people, and _surely_ he knew the dangers of being Force-sensitive even better than Anakin did! Maybe that meant that Anakin should trust them too. He supposed he would wait, and then decide for himself.

Fixit finished looking Anakin over and beeped out its results. It called him underweight and short for his age.

“If those are the most pressing problems he has besides the obvious, I’m counting that as a win,” Kix said. “Go find Coric and tell him to get the Commanders and Rex.”

The droid trundled off. 

“Where’s Qui-Gon? And Padmé and Jar Jar and the Queen?” Obi-Wan asked.

“Senator Amidala and Representative Binks are on Coruscant, last I heard,” Kix said. “I don’t know who Qui-Gon is or which queen you’re referring to, though.”

“Qui-Gon’s my Master,” Obi-Wan said. “And Padmé’s not a senator, she’s one of the Nubian Queen’s handmaidens." As an afterthought, he mumbled, "...and I think her last name's Naberrie.”

Kix frowned and changed the subject. “I’m going to ask you the same questions I asked Anakin,” Kix said. “Answer them honestly, it’s a medical assessment.”

Anakin watched them go back and forth. The only question that Kix changed for Obi-Wan was that instead of asking who his Jedi Master was, he asked who Obi-Wan’s padawan was. Obi-Wan said he didn’t have one. Then he asked who Obi-Wan’s Commander was, and Obi-Wan didn’t understand the question, but said that Kix probably meant Qui-Gon. Kix didn’t seem pleased with Obi-Wan’s answers either, though Obi-Wan, at least, could tell him who the Chancellor was.

Soon enough, four more people entered the medbay. Three of them looked just like Kix, and the last one was a shorter non-human with _three_ lightsabers on her belt. Another Jedi! _Wizard!_

Kix left to talk with his brothers, and the Jedi ducked around him to practically run towards him and Obi-Wan. “Skyguy! Master Obi-Wan! You’re awake!”

“Padawan,” Obi-Wan corrected again. “...It’s Padawan Obi-Wan.”

The Jedi stopped just short of jumping to hug Anakin, it seemed. She bowed at the two of them instead. “Coric said you two didn’t seem to know what was going on,” she said.

“Yes, well, nobody here seems very keen on providing any answers,” Obi-Wan said, clearly irritated.

“You don’t recognize me, do you?” The Jedi asked.

“Should I?” Obi-Wan asked.

“I’m Padawan Ahsoka Tano,” she said, as if that cleared everything up.

“Torrent’s padawan, then, according to the medic,” Obi-Wan said. “I’ll admit I don’t know every Jedi in the galaxy, but I’ve never heard of a Master Torrent.”

“Oh, no,” Padawan Tano said, almost giggling. “Torrent’s not my master. I’m the Jedi Commander of Torrent Company.”

“Then who _is_ your Master?”

Padawan Tano took a breath. “Master Anakin Skywalker,” she said.

That didn’t make any sense to Anakin, but he felt in his gut that she was telling the truth.

Obi-Wan scowled. “Very funny,” he said.

“It’s not a joke,” Padawan Tano said seriously.

Obi-Wan’s scowl softened to a concerned frown. “I should have asked this first: Is this a vision?”

Padawan Tano gave him an odd look. “No? And since when do _you_ have visions, Master Obi-Wan?”

“Padawan Obi-Wan.”

“ _Padawan_ Obi-Wan, then, if it makes you feel better,” Padawan Tano said. “How old are you now?”

“Twenty-five,” Obi-Wan said. “And what, I’m just supposed to _believe_ that we’re in the future or something?”

“I mean, I don’t think it’s time travel, otherwise we’d already know about it, wouldn’t we?” Padawan Tano said. “You and Skyguy were on a mission in the middle of a battle to stop some new Seppie weapon. The last comm we got from you was that you thought it was some sort of Sith artifact, and then the line went totally dead! When Rex and I finally caught up to you guys, you were unconscious and, well, like this, and then you didn’t wake up for two days!”

“Did we stop the weapon?” Obi-Wan asked.

“I don’t know! I assume so since we didn’t have overwhelming losses, but maybe whatever turned you into kids _was_ the weapon! After all, if it can turn powerful human Jedi into little kids, imagine what it could do to regular humans, like, oh I don’t know, everyone in the GAR! If you both lost _ten years_ , that could mean—”

“You’re spiraling, Padawan,” Obi-Wan said gently. “Take a few deep breaths and center yourself.”

Padawan Tano did as ordered, and suddenly something in the air seemed to dissipate. Anakin let go of tension and anxiety that he wasn’t aware he’d been feeling, and then after a moment, he thought that maybe _he_ hadn’t been feeling it. Or maybe he had, but it was like an external feeling, like when you touch something really hot and you can feel it’s hot but it’s not you that’s hot. Anakin didn’t quite understand it, himself.

The quadruplet Mandalorians joined them, saluting briefly. Anakin thought it would be difficult to tell them apart if all their armor wasn’t painted differently. He’d never seen quadruplets before. It was considered unfortunate on Tatooine if a mother gave birth to twins, or at least it was in the slaves’ quarters. His mom told him that mothers who carried twins were less likely to survive the birth. He hadn’t known it was possible for moms to carry three, much less four.

“Generals,” said the only one in orange armor. Anakin saw that he had a lightsaber clipped to his belt, and wondered if he was a Jedi too. “It’s good to see you awake.”

“If I’m supposed to recognize you, I don’t,” Obi-Wan said irritably. 

“Yeah, Kix mentioned the two of you didn’t know what was going on,” said the one with a skirt over his armor and a weird blue decoration on his shoulder. He was also blond, just like Anakin.

“I’m Marshal Commander Cody,” said the one in orange. “I’m your second-in-command, General Kenobi. This is Captain Rex, Skywalker’s second-in-command, and Sergeant Coric, another Torrent medic.”

“You’ll have to explain this to me like I’m not a Mandalorian,” Obi-Wan said. “But, how, exactly, did you end up with three Jedi in charge? After Galidraan, I’d think most Mandalorians would shoot a Jedi on sight, not ally themselves with us in battle and _certainly_ not let them be any sort of leader in another Mandalorian war.”

“This isn’t a Mandalorian war, Master Obi-Wan—”

“ _Padawan_ —”

“ _Padawan_ Obi-Wan,” Padawan Tano said. “It’s a galaxy-wide civil war. The Jedi lead the Grand Army of the Republic. The Sith lead the droid army of the Separatists.”

Now it was Obi-Wan who had to take deep breaths to center himself. Anakin heard the beeping of Obi-Wan’s machine speed up and then slowly return to normal. The beeping one must monitor heartbeats.

“Okay,” Obi-Wan said. “What do you need me to do?”

“That’s for the Council to decide,” Padawan Tano said. “No offense, but if you don’t remember anything, I’m not sure you’re really in a position to be leading a war.”

Anakin could tell that Obi-Wan was panicking, and it wasn’t just because the heart rate monitor was speeding up again.

Obi-Wan glared at it. “Do I really need to keep this thing on?”

Kix gave a short, almost humorless, laugh. “I suppose not,” he said. 

Obi-Wan popped the monitor off of his finger, and turned off the machine as it started shrieking out a “no heartbeat” alarm. Coric came over to Anakin to unclip his own monitor.

“Are they cleared to leave?” Commander Cody asked.

“For the moment,” Kix said.

Obi-Wan slid off the cot immediately. “Are we going to see the Council now?” he asked.

“I would like to recommend that you and Anakin eat a meal before anything else,” Kix said. It sounded like an order, not a recommendation.

Commander Cody nodded. “Mess hall, then Council meeting.”

Obi-Wan gave a short nod, then walked over to Anakin’s cot. “Come on, Anakin,” he said, holding out a hand to help Anakin down. Anakin took it and hopped off the cot.

“Rex, take Anakin and Ahsoka to wait outside,” Kix said. “I need to discuss something with General Kenobi.”

Obi-Wan tensed.

Obi-Wan had been brave and risked getting punished to make Kix be nice to Anakin. It was only fair that Anakin do the same for Obi-Wan.

“I want to stay with Obi-Wan!” Anakin said, clinging defiantly to Obi-Wan’s hand.

“No,” Kix said. “I need to speak with him alone.”

Anakin opened his mouth to argue even though his mind screamed at him to stop, to avoid making Kix mad.

Obi-Wan squeezed his hand. “Anakin, why don’t you wait just outside the doors? They’re transparisteel, you can watch me the whole time and Kix can still speak freely.”

“...Okay,” Anakin said. Obi-Wan squeezed his hand again before letting go. Anakin somehow knew it was a thank you for trying to stick up for him.

“Come on Skyguy,” Padawan Tano said cheerfully. “Mas— _Padawan_ Obi-Wan will be out in a jiffy!”

She held out her hand for Anakin to grab. He risked one more chance at punishment, folding his hands into his sleeves the way he’d seen Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon do on Tatooine. He wanted them to know that he did _not_ approve of being separated from Obi-Wan.

Padawan Tano, at least, seemed to get the message, deflating and dropping her hand. Silently, they left the medbay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone I've returned! 
> 
> I've finished the roughest of drafts for this, and it currently lies at about eight chapters, but that's not a set-in-stone number. Updates should be every Friday as long as everything goes to plan. You can also check out my [tumblr,](https://itstimeforstarwars.tumblr.com) where I complain about writing and post star wars memes and stuff.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kix and Obi-Wan have a chat, and Obi-Wan finds out that broken Force Bonds can be very difficult to deal with.

Kix saw the way Kenobi tensed up when he asked to speak alone. He was a medic, it was his job to see everything. And from what he saw, it seemed like the hatred of medics was long-standing. Kix’s missteps with Anakin when they first woke up probably didn’t help any, either.

When Anakin and the other officers had made it to the other side of the doors, Kix fell into a defiant parade rest and addressed Kenobi. “I don’t want to take advantage of my General when he doesn’t remember me enough to know what he should and should not disclose, so since you’re the closest thing he has to an  _ ori’vod _ ,1 I’m going to ask you, and you use your best judgment to decide exactly how much I need to know.”

Kenobi raised an eyebrow. “Alright?”

“What the sith hells happened to him?”

Kenobi crossed his arms in almost a mimicry of Kix’s attitude. Defensive, protective, irritated. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“The Skywalker I know is a confident, tenacious, argumentative Jedi, who is, dare I say it,  _ mandokarla _ .2 I’d have half a mind to adopt him after the war myself if I didn’t know Rex is already determined to claim him and Ahsoka both—don’t tell them that, though, we have a betting pool on how long it’s going to take them to figure it out. Point is, sir, I don’t see him here. I see a scaredy-tooka child who flinches at everything but a droid. Even a  _ medic _ . So. What happened?”

“Well, to be fair, judging  _ purely _ by looks, you’re a pretty frightening-looking medic, especially in full  _ beskar'gam _ .”3

“You think I’m frightening?” Kix asked.

“I’ve met medics more frightening, but I doubt Anakin has,” Kenobi said coldly. Kix noticed that Kenobi didn’t actually answer the question. “He’s spent most of his childhood as a slave. I know you said we’re bigshot Jedi generals right now, but as far as my memories go, he was only rescued from it a day or so ago, and I assume the same holds true for Anakin himself. You’ll have to forgive him for not being warrior material  _ quite  _ yet.”

Only Kix’s years of training kept his face neutral in the face of that bombshell. His General had been a  _ slave _ ...he mentally shook his head. It didn’t matter. Well, it mattered right now, because it affected how he needed to treat small Anakin and what he needed to watch out for, but he wouldn’t let the information affect how he treated his general normally. And he would keep it in strictest medical confidence. If the General hadn’t told anyone in the 501st—and he  _ hadn’t, _ because if he’d told anyone besides Kix or Coric, the whole company would have known by now—then it was clearly something he didn’t want others knowing about.

“Thank you for telling me this, General Kenobi,” Kix said. “Is there anything else I should know about you or General Skywalker?”

“I don’t...think so? I’m sure if anything comes up, we can address it at that time. Just try not to scare Anakin next time.”

Kix gave a nod. Then he said, “Go eat, General Kenobi. I don’t want you skipping any meals while on my karking ship, got it?”

“Got it,” Kenobi said, turning to leave.

“And I want you and Anakin to come back tonight for another overnight observation. If both of you are still reading as healthy tomorrow, you can move back into your own rooms.”

Kenobi sighed. “Fine,” he said, and started walking away.

Before he got five paces, Kix called, “Hey Kenobi!”

Kenobi turned.

“Who’s a scarier medic than I am?”

Kenobi grinned. “Master Che of the Coruscant Jedi Temple,” he said.

Then he walked out, leaving Kix with a lot on his mind.

Ahsoka couldn’t pretend she wasn’t hurt by Anakin’s rejection of her, even though she tried very hard to release that feeling into the Force and project only serenity into her mind. It was unfair of her to expect him to instantly reach out and like her, especially considering that Coric had told her that Fixit had said that they don’t seem to have any memories of the present. He didn’t even like her at first when he was an  _ adult _ , they’d had to spend some time together on a mission and she’d had to prove to him that she could keep up first. She’d just have to prove herself again. Easy. 

Sometimes it felt like all she ever  _ did  _ was prove herself.

At least they still had a training bond. She wasn’t sure she would be able to handle it if it had been severed. Skyguy no longer seemed to be  _ aware _ of it, with his side of the bond neither interacting with nor blocking her, but he hadn’t tried to kill it.

When Obi-Wan exited the medbay, Anakin instantly clung to him, and Ahsoka tried not to be jealous. Of  _ course _ Anakin would cling to Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan was his own Master! And from what she’d seen in the crèche, human children were much more clingy than human adults, so it made perfect sense that Anakin would be more affectionate now than she’d ever seen him be with Obi-Wan as an adult.

“What did he  _ want? _ ” Anakin asked into Obi-Wan’s sleeve.

“Just to clarify a few things,” Obi-Wan said vaguely. At least her grandmaster hadn’t changed much. “Don’t worry about it, it wasn’t anything bad. Except we  _ do _ have to come back and sleep in the medbay. Medic Kix wants to make sure we’re healthy enough to be on our own before he lets us go back to living in our own rooms.”

She didn’t see or hear or feel Anakin make a response to that, but he must have, because Obi-Wan was replying to him.

“I’m not very fond of the medbay either, but it’s very important to follow a medic’s orders. They’re in charge of saving our lives and keeping us healthy, you know.”

Ahsoka very carefully did not look at Rex as she choked and coughed on a laugh. Such a sentiment from her  _ grandmaster? _ Obi-Wan Kenobi, Master of the rare Jedi talents of Escaping Medbays and Infuriating Medics Everywhere?

She changed her mind. She didn’t recognize this Obi-Wan Kenobi at all.

Well.

She did recognize the  _ very _ flat look he was giving her.

“Isn’t that right,  _ Padawan Tano? _ ” Obi-Wan asked her.

“Yes, definitely,” Ahsoka said, trying her best to be Jedi-level calm and collected. “There’s  _ nothing _ more important than following a medic’s orders,  _ especially _ during a war. Please excuse me.”

She bowed and dashed off to an empty lounge room nearby, where she burst out cackling. Oh, the  _ irony. _

Cody and Rex, who had stayed behind, merely shared a significant  _ look _ at Obi-Wan’s words.

“She’s laughing at you,” Anakin informed him.

“I’m aware,” Obi-Wan said dryly. “But mind her words, still. She’s laughing at me, personally, not our advice. I’ve gained a  _ reputation _ among the junior padawans, and it’s apparently only gotten worse over the years.”

Cody gave a slight cough at that.

Obi-Wan turned toward him, quicker than expected. “You’re Commander Cody, right?”

“Yes sir,” Cody said.

“I was told to ask you about the whereabouts of my lightsaber.”

Cody unclipped the lightsaber hanging from his belt. “Right here, sir.”

Obi-Wan took it, looking almost confused. “What happened to my old one?”

“You’ve had this one since the beginning of the war,” Cody said, miraculously managing not to tack on some comment about how surprising it was that he’d managed to keep it for this long.

Obi-Wan continued to look troubled, but said, “Thank you, Commander.”

As they made their way to the mess hall, Obi-Wan felt more and more confused, out of place, and alone. He was carrying a lightsaber that he’d never seen before that nevertheless had a crystal that sang for him. He was apparently a General and these were the other officers with whom he had a working relationship, and they had an easy dynamic that he probably fit into somewhere as a Master but that he had no idea about currently. They were apparently close enough to joke about each other, if Padawan Tano’s reaction was anything to go by. They apparently had  _ in-jokes _ about him, ones that he didn’t quite understand but that everyone else found funny. He could tell that they didn’t mean it in a cruel way at all, but he’d been laughed at enough throughout his life without understanding why that it grated on his nerves all the same.

He knew that Master Qui-Gon was not onboard the ship with them; Kix had said he didn’t even know the man. No doubt at this age he was retired to the Temple. There was no way he’d be able to feel how Obi-Wan was feeling from all the way on Coruscant.

That didn’t stop him from instinctively trying to draw comfort from their bond.

Cody saw his general gasp and stagger, and caught him reflexively. Obi-Wan’s face had contorted into one of pain, and he gave a choked sob. Skywalker immediately clung to him, babbling in Huttese in panic.

“We need to get him back to the medbay,” Cody snapped. From the way Obi-Wan curled in pain, it was something hurting in either the abdominal area or the chest. It did not bode well.

Cody picked his general up in a bridal carry and began walking double-time towards medical. He couldn’t tell if Obi-Wan’s staccato breathing was due to panic or something wrong with his lungs. Either way, he’d never seen his general hurting like this in all the time he’d known him, and he’d seen the general get  _ shot _ .

Obi-Wan seemed to pick up on that last thought, because suddenly he seemed to be trying to get his breathing under control. First came the breathing, pained and panicked gasps leveling out into pained yet measured breaths, and then the sniffles quieted, and then it was almost as if Obi-Wan was back to his typical serene self. If Cody couldn’t still feel the tension in Obi-Wan’s body and see the tight control over his expression, he might even believe that his general was alright.

Cody couldn’t feel it, but he was pretty sure Obi-Wan was doing what Master Che had told Cody he was not supposed to be doing—releasing pain into the Force in order to keep going when he shouldn’t.

“M-my apologies,” Obi-Wan said, a wobble still in his voice. “You can put me down now.”

“All due respect, sir, I’m not putting you down until we get you back to medical,” Cody said.

“I don’t need medical,” Obi-Wan protested. It lacked his usual argumentative conviction. 

“Banthashit,” Rex said from behind him.

“It’s Force stuff,” Obi-Wan said. “I don’t think the medics here can do anything.”

“All the same, sir, I think we’d better have Kix look you over.”

It wasn’t really a suggestion, and Obi-Wan knew it. He gave a nod, and closed his eyes in a grimace of pain. Cody wished he had a trained Jedi with them. No doubt they would be able to trace whatever was attacking his general through the Force. A senior padawan who wouldn’t tell them what’s wrong and two junior padawans who clearly didn’t know wasn’t cutting it.

By the time they reached medical, Cody thought that Obi-Wan had passed out, his face having smoothed out and his breathing deep and regular. It was only when Obi-Wan started answering Kix’s questions that Cody realized that Obi-Wan had merely been meditating.

“What  _ happened? _ ” Kix asked. “It’s been less than ten minutes!”

“The General collapsed,” Cody said. “He was in a lot of pain, centered somewhere in the torso area, and said it was ‘Force stuff,’ so I’m not exactly sure what’s happening.”

Kix frowned deeply and grabbed his scanners. “If that Sith artifact is injuring him, I’m not sure I can do anything,” he said.

“It’s not a Sith artifact,” Obi-Wan mumbled as Cody transferred him to a cot. “At least I don’t think it is.”

Anakin quickly attached himself to Obi-wan, who didn’t seem to notice. Obi-Wan opened his eyes, but they weren’t quite focused. He looked around, and stopped at Ahsoka, who Cody hadn’t even noticed had joined them again. 

“Padawan,” Obi-Wan said, and his voice was full of pain, and desperation, and Cody’s heart ached to hear it. “What happened to Master Qui-Gon Jinn?”

Ahsoka looked pained to answer. “He joined the Force, Master Obi-Wan,” she said softly. “Almost ten years ago.”

Obi-Wan squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. He nodded. “Of course,” he said. “You don’t need to worry, Medic Kix. A broken Force Bond isn’t something modern medicine can fix, even at the Temple.”

“Is there anything that can be done to help you?” Cody asked. “You’re  _ clearly _ in pain.”

“It will subside, probably, I just...need a few minutes,” Obi-Wan said.

“I’m going to look you over just in case,” Kix said. “That alright?”

“If it makes you feel better,” Obi-Wan said.

“Can you describe your pain?”

“Hurts,” Obi-Wan said. 

Kix gave him a flat look.

Obi-Wan elaborated. “It kind of feels like I’ve been stabbed in the chest with a lightsaber.”

Kix scanned him, using both the equipment and his eyes and hands to make sure he caught everything. Obi-Wan had an accelerated heart rate, and his brain was detecting a level of pain that was, quite frankly,  _ alarming  _ in Kix’s professional medical opinion, especially when there was physically nothing wrong with him—no blood, no bruising, no burns, nothing broken. The fact that Obi-Wan was just laying there calmly on the cot with barely a grimace was a testament to the absolute ridiculousness of Jedi stubbornness. 

“Do you know what that feels like from personal experience?” Kix asked.

“I’ve gotten lightsaber burns before and I have been stabbed, but no, I can’t say I’ve experienced this exactly before,” Obi-Wan gritted out. “Getting stabbed in the chest with a lightsaber would actually kill me, I'm fairly certain.”

As Kix watched, the pain levels subsided, and Obi-Wan’s heart rate returned to a more normal range. It was a very measured and even way that Obi-Wan returned to normal, almost like it was being purposefully lowered.

Kix  _ hated _ Force shit in the medbay.

Obi-Wan pushed himself up and opened his eyes. “I’m alright now, thank you,” he said.

“Really? Or are you just saying that to make us feel better?” Cody asked.

“You’ve got another Jedi standing right there, do you  _ really _ think I could lie and she wouldn’t catch me?”

“Yes,” Cody said.

That seemed to catch Obi-Wan completely off-guard. “Oh,” he said. “Well...thank you, for your confidence in my abilities.”

Cody glanced at Kix. Kix nodded. Cody turned back to Obi-Wan.

“Ready to try going to the mess hall again?” Cody asked.

“Yes,” Obi-Wan said immediately. He took a breath, and then slid off the bed. In an instant, Anakin had his arms wrapped tightly around him, as if a hug could ward off all the pain. Who knew, maybe with Jedi, it could.

“Try not to do anything to land back here before bedtime,” Kix said dryly.

“Of course, Medic,” Obi-Wan said.

As a group, the officers minus Kix set off for food a second time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1ori'vod: big brotherback  
> 2mandokarla: having the "right stuff" or the state of being the epitome of Mando virtueback  
> 3beskar'gam: armorback


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to talk to the Jedi Council.

The food was disappointingly bland, which was surprising to Obi-Wan. He’d been shipboard often enough to know that space rations were usually less-than-stellar when compared to planetside food, but he was among _Mandalorians_. 

Or was he? Even more surprising than the quality of the food was the fact that he, Anakin, and Padawan Tano seemed to be the only “natborns” on the whole ship. When the medic had defined them as what they were _not_ —and that being “not a clone,” he hadn’t realized that there was such a staggering amount of them. Four was reasonable; maybe Mister Fett just wanted a decent-sized family, and had trouble getting them in the usual ways. Hundreds, though? _Hundreds_ of clones? 

Obi-Wan had no idea what to think about that.

It was worse that all of them knew who he was and he didn’t know any of them. They kept coming up to his little group to say hello, or express their joy that he and Anakin were finally awake, or ask how everything was. It wasn’t like when he was on missions with Qui-Gon, where citizens would come up to meet the Jedi and you had to make polite talk while they gushed about how you saved their town or whatever, because everyone here seemed to actually _know_ him. He wasn’t “the Jedi,” he was “General Kenobi,” and he was someone that the troopers _respected_.

It was actually a _relief_ when they left the mess hall to go see the Jedi Council.

It was even better when it ended up that they were not seeing the full Council, but just Masters Koon, Windu and Yoda.

"Hello, Masters," Padawan Tano said, bowing once the holo was up. "Master Kenobi and Skyguy finally woke up."

She ignored the whispered, " _Padawan!_ " from behind her as she stepped aside.

"Thank you, Padawan Tano," Mace said, bowing. “Kenobi, how are you?”

Already, he could see that Obi-Wan was not fine. He’d been briefed on the fact that Obi-Wan and Skywalker seemed to have been turned into younger versions of themselves, but it was still surprising to see. Even more surprising was how disheveled he looked. Obi-Wan’s hair was a mess, and while part of it was clearly long enough to be his Padawan braid, there were no beads and it wasn’t braided. He held his left arm curled protectively over his side, as though he was hiding something—an injury, perhaps, knowing Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan did his best at looking perfectly neutral as he gave a shallow bow back to the Masters, but Mace could see how stiff he was, how tense. He had watched that boy grow up, and he knew that Obi-Wan was nervous. More nervous than he ought to be at a meeting of his fellow Council members.

Mace was starting to get the feeling that Obi-Wan’s predicament went beyond just his physical appearance.

“I’ve been better, Master Windu, but I’ve also been worse,” Obi-Wan said dryly. “I do have to say, waking up to find myself among strangers and allegedly missing ten years of my life has made for a very interesting morning.”

And there was the confirmation. Internally, Mace’s heart was sinking. 

“What’s the last thing you remember, Obi-Wan?” Plo asked gently.

“The mission to Naboo,” Obi-Wan said. “Master Jinn and I were sent to Naboo to negotiate a stop to the Trade Federation’s blockade. They tried to kill us, but we escaped their ship and landed on Naboo, where the Trade Federation was mounting an invasion. We managed to get the Queen and some of her servants off the planet, but our ship sustained damage and we had to land on Tatooine. Master Jinn went to find parts to repair the ship while I stayed behind to protect the Queen and make what repairs I could. While we were there, Master Jinn found a young Force-Sensitive named Anakin, who he believes would make a good candidate for Initiation Testing. As we were leaving Tatooine, we were attacked by a rogue Force-user, but we all managed to get away safely. We made it almost to Coruscant, and Master Jinn had just told us that we had an hour before landing...and then I woke up here.”

Mace could feel the beginnings of a headache, one separate from the shatterpoint-related headaches that Obi-Wan and Skywalker always gave him. That was a _lot_ of missing time. If Skywalker was in the same boat, he wouldn’t know any other Jedi, or anything about their ways.

If Skywalker was in the same boat, he was too young to be any help at all. And probably terribly frightened. Caleb certainly would be, in a similar situation.

“Catch you up, then, we will,” Yoda said. “The Sith have returned. Fallen into civil war, the Republic has.”

There were gentler ways that news could have been broken. Gentler ways that news probably _should_ have been broken. Still, Obi-Wan didn’t look surprised. Someone must have already briefed him.

“In the last decade, both Knighthood and Mastery you have attained,” Yoda continued. “A Padawan, you have successfully raised to Knighthood. Generals in the Grand Army of the Republic, you both have been made.”

“The Jedi have been fighting to preserve both the Republic and balance in the Force,” Mace explained. “You and Skywalker command some of our most elite forces, and you’re currently on a mission of critical importance.”

“I don’t know anything about what’s going on,” Obi-Wan protested, fighting very hard to remain serene and not quite succeeding. “And Anakin is _nine_. I don’t think we’re the best people to be on this mission.”

“Unfortunate, the circumstances are,” Yoda said. “But no other Jedi can we spare. Complete this mission, you _must_.”

“Where is young Skywalker, Obi-Wan?” Plo asked.

Now that it had been pointed out, Mace did think it was odd that Skywalker wasn’t there with Obi-Wan. The Council hadn’t explicitly _asked_ Tano to make sure that Skywalker was there, but when Mace had told her to call them again when the two woke up, he assumed that she’d have both of them in tow. That was his fault though, for not being specific enough.

Obi-Wan gave them a confused look, and then looked down and moved his left arm to the side, revealing not an injury, but a tiny Skywalker. “He’s right here, Master Koon. Say hi to the Councillors, Anakin.”

Skywalker was gripping Obi-Wan’s tunics like his life depended on it. Nervously, he mumbled, “Hi, Councillors.”

Skywalker clearly didn’t know who they were.

“Hello, young Skywalker,” Plo said gently, in that parental way he always had with crèchelings. “Can you tell me the last thing you remember before waking up on this ship?”

Skywalker nodded. “Miss Padmé gave me a blanket and told me I should get some rest before we get to Coruscant.”

“Recognize any of us, do you?” Yoda asked.

“No, sir,” Skywalker said.

Yoda’s ears twitched in irritation. Mace could understand the sentiment. This war was going poorly enough without them losing one of their most valuable Jedi generals.

“Participate in this mission, you cannot,” Yoda informed him. “Too young, you are. Skills and knowledge, you lack. Command of the 501st, we will give to Obi-Wan. Stay on the ship, _you_ will, young Skywalker. Do you understand?”

Skywalker furrowed his brow for a moment, clearly trying to parse Yoda’s outdated way of speaking. Finally, he said, “I think so, sir.”

Obi-Wan squeezed his shoulder in a gesture of support. Mace didn’t remember either of them being so... _clingy_ , the first time Skywalker had met the council. It was interesting, the way their relationship developed without Jinn meddling in it.

Speaking of Jinn…

“Are the two of you aware of what happened to Master Jinn?” Mace asked. It would be painful to do this over holocall, and he’d prefer to have this conversation in person, but it would be crueler to lead them on, to let them believe he was merely somewhere else, only to yank the rug from underneath them later. And with the way the war was going, who even knew when they’d next be on Coruscant?

Obi-Wan squeezed his eyes shut and looked away, unable to hold his serene pose. Skywalker looked down, almost guiltily, though Mace couldn’t imagine what he could be feeling guilty _for_.

“He’s dead, sir,” Skywalker said.

Tano must have told them, then. He didn’t envy the girl that conversation.

“Yes,” Mace said gently. “He joined the Force almost ten years ago. I’m sorry, Obi-Wan, Skywalker.”

“Thank you, Master Windu,” Obi-Wan said quietly.

“A good Jedi, he was,” Yoda said. “Greatly unfortunate, it is, that he is no longer here with us.”

There were a few moments of silence, as certain members of their company waited politely for other members to discreetly compose themselves. It was a great loss for all of them, but some of them felt the pain of Jinn’s parting more freshly or more deeply than others.

Finally, Obi-Wan took a deep breath, and asked, “What do you need me to do?”

“Lead the next campaign, you must,” Yoda said. “Brief you on the mission, your commander will, but one of our best Generals, you are. Need you, we do, if this war, we are going to win.”

Even through the blue filter, Mace could tell how pale Obi-Wan had gone. He wished there were other options, but the Jedi and the GAR were stretched beyond their limits. Obi-Wan was always a stellar Jedi, no matter what he personally thought, and the men that he and Skywalker led were exceptional. Tano was also a very skilled padawan, and she could help command where experience was needed more than age. They would manage.

“Have faith in yourself, Obi-Wan,” Plo said, in the gentle, proud way he always had with Padawans. “You have always proven to be a dedicated and capable Jedi.”

“Padawan Tano and Commander Cody can help you,” Mace said. “But despite the weird situation, you _are_ the most senior Jedi there. We need you to be in charge of the 212th and the 501st until this situation is resolved.”

“Yes, Masters,” Obi-Wan said, bowing.

“Good luck, Obi-Wan,” Mace said, and he meant it.

“May the Force be with you,” Yoda said.

“And with you as well,” Obi-Wan replied.

The comm shut off, and Obi-Wan took a deep breath, while Anakin buried his face in Obi-Wan’s tunics again. Ahsoka gave an irritable sigh. The atmosphere around the holoprojector was tense. Rex was glad that it was just the Jedi, Cody, him, and a few officers in the room. He made a small hand-sign for _discretion_ to Hardcase and Jesse. Nothing classified had been talked about during the meeting, but it wouldn’t be good for it to get out how worried the Jedi were about this whole situation. That would only make the troopers more nervous than necessary.

Cody glanced at Obi-Wan, then Anakin, then gave Rex a _look._ Rex, understanding perfectly, gave a different _look_ to Jesse, then flicked his eyes to Anakin and back to Jesse.

His second-in-command also understood perfectly.

“Hey cadet,” Jesse said, approaching the Jedi. Anakin looked up, clutching tighter to Obi-Wan. “The grownups and Ahsoka are going to have boring mission briefing time now. You wanna come down to the hangars with me? I’ll introduce you to the engineers, and if you want you can help repair some ships.”

He’d captured Anakin’s interest. Some things _never_ change.

Anakin still looked up to Obi-Wan with worry though. Obi-Wan looked down at him with a comforting expression and smoothed a hand over Anakin’s hair. “Go ahead, Anakin,” he said. “It’s bound to be far more interesting to you than what we’re doing up here.”

Anakin was clearly interested, but he shook his head and held tight. “I want to stay with Obi-Wan!” he said.

They could argue, but it was doubtful that they’d get anywhere. Rex was well-aware of how stubborn Anakin was. That stubbornness had saved his _shebs4 _ over and over during this war. It had also gotten them into trouble at _least_ as often as it saved them. If Anakin didn’t want to do something, and Obi-Wan or Rex couldn’t convince him into doing it, it wouldn’t get done.

And, well, Anakin was nine. He was a little kid. If they tried to separate him from his _ori’vod5 _ when he didn’t want to be, not only would he never trust them again, but he’d probably cry, too. And Rex _really_ didn’t want a crying frightened child on his hands. And Jesse would never forgive him if Rex offloaded that duty onto him.

“Fine,” Rex said, before anyone could kickstart that chain of events. “You can stay if you’re quiet.”

Bly had used that line on Rex a lot when he was a cadet. It didn’t usually work with him, but maybe with Anakin it would be different.

Rex glanced back at Cody, who was clearly suppressing amusement. Rex decided to ignore Cody.

It was time to get down to business. If Anakin didn’t want to go down to work on ships, he would just have to come with them.

“This way, please, Generals, Commander,” Cody said, leading them into a smaller office on the port side of the bridge. 

The Jedi and Rex followed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4shebs: assback  
> 5ori'vod: big brotherback
> 
> This chapter was a menace; Mace Windu wasn't the only one who needed an aspirin to get through it lmao. It actually got long enough that I split it in half and decided to work on the rest of it next week, hence the changed number of chapters.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rex has already heard this briefing. He turns his attention to how weird the Generals act as kids.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just thought I'd give y'all a heads up, this chapter contains some depictions of food issues. In general for this fic, Anakin has dealt with food scarcity in his youth, and Obi-Wan tends to get so wrapped up in things that he forgets about basic self-care, and their eating habits reflect that.

As everyone entered the office, Rex and Cody quickly checked for bugs or left-behind comms before starting the briefing. It was a habit now; you only had to have a mole once for it to leave a lasting effect.

Ahsoka took a seat, followed by Obi-Wan. Anakin silently pulled himself onto Obi-Wan’s lap. It seemed to surprise Obi-Wan, but he quickly adjusted, wrapping an arm around Anakin so he didn’t fall. Anakin continued to wriggle around a bit until he was comfortable, silent the entire time. Once he was snuggled up against Obi-Wan’s chest with a tight grip on his sleeve, Anakin apparently deemed himself safe enough to cast wary glances at both Cody and Rex.

Honestly, the clinginess of Anakin very much surprised Rex. For this to be the same person who routinely went on rants about how much Obi-Wan held him back, or condescended to him, or lectured him unnecessarily; the same person who often could barely stand to be in the same room with Obi-Wan, especially when they disagreed; the same person who at once despised and craved Obi-Wan’s attention...it didn’t seem possible. Rex wondered what had changed in the last ten years that had distanced their relationship. Was it just growing up? Or was it the attachment thing? Or the fact that Anakin was married? Obi-Wan and Anakin were still brothers, still an unshakable team, but the way they were acting now...it was very different.

That was a problem for later, though. Right now they were doing a briefing. Rex was glad that he’d put on his helmet for the Council meeting. As the briefing dragged on through the afternoon, he only half-listened to Cody’s words, just enough to jump in when necessary. He was focused on Obi-Wan, trying to get a read on how helpful he might be during this mission. Obi-Wan was a Padawan, like Ahsoka, but he was a decade older than she was. He knew that Ahsoka could hold her own as command at this point. But she had been raised in this war; Obi-Wan was currently a civilian.

Obi-Wan, for his part, seemed like he was being intentionally difficult to get a read on. Rex wondered at what point Jedi got their serenity. Obi-Wan had been visibly upset and in pain in the medbay and a bit fazed still during the meeting with the Council, something Rex had never seen before but most definitely had to do with the broken Force bond thing, but now he was back to being unfazed by anything Cody threw at him. It couldn’t be something that Jedi learned in the crèche, because Ahsoka didn’t have it, and they clearly didn’t get it for graduation, because Anakin didn’t have it. But Obi-Wan was a Padawan right now, and he had it. Rex wondered if it was an elective class for Jedi. Maybe Ahsoka and Anakin had taken “History of the Ruusan Reformation” instead of “Serenity for Diplomatic and Combat Situations.”

In fact, the only thing that really seemed to break his serenity was...well, Anakin. Obi-Wan’s expression was a neutral frown while Cody explained their troop numbers, the estimated droid numbers, the base they were supposed to secure and the possible obstacles. He kept that state while he asked clarifying questions, like whether civilians had been evacuated, how many medics the 212th and the 501st had, and what upgrades to the battle droids had been made since he’d confronted them on a Trade Federation ship ten years ago. He couldn’t even bother to look confused while Cody showed him data rosters for munitions and ordnance, things that often confused even the civilians who were touted as experts, instead taking great care to read over them, looking entirely like a stock control specialist decanted knowing what to do with such reports. But once the briefing was over, and Anakin whispered that he needed a refresher, Obi-Wan broke into a soft smile.

“I’m sure there’s one around here somewhere,” Obi-Wan said gently. “Perhaps Padawan Tano can lead the way?”

Ahsoka jumped; she’d zoned out from this plane of existence after the first hour and a half. Rex wasn’t the only one who’d already heard this briefing. “Hm?” she asked. “Oh, sure! It’s this way, Skyguy.”

She didn’t try to reach out for him this time, instead just giving the “follow me” hand sign and walking out the door. Anakin slid off of Obi-Wan’s lap and scuttled after her.

“You alright, General?” Cody asked, once the two kids had left. He must really be worried; usually, he would never ask about vulnerabilities in front of another battalion’s leader, even if it was just Rex.

“Yes, I’m fine, Commander,” Obi-Wan said, toying with the long part of his hair that Rex assumed was supposed to be a Padawan braid, despite the fact that it was not braided and had no silka beads.

“Does that...Force bond, thing, still hurt?” Cody asked.

“No,” Obi-Wan said, in such a certain way that Rex thought he might be lying. “And I do apologize for frightening you. Had I been expecting such an outcome, my reaction would have been less...dramatic.”

“Are broken Force Bonds normally that painful?” Rex couldn’t help asking. He knew that Anakin and Ahsoka had one, that it was something that most if not all padawans had with their masters, and if worse came to worst...well, he wanted to know what to expect.

“I couldn’t say for certain, it’s not like I’ve ever had another to compare it to,” Obi-Wan said dryly. “But probably, considering that when they snap, it tends to be for traumatic reasons. Sudden death, usually.”

“Oh,” Rex said.

“My master,” Obi-Wan said, voice carefully flat, “had two broken bonds that I know of. One from his padawan before me, and one from his...from a close friend of his. I don’t recall him ever saying they hurt more than an old ache, but he’s a far more experienced Jedi than I am, and, well, he probably left them well enough alone. I think I mostly did the Force Bond equivalent of smacking a broken wrist against a table corner, which is why it had such an effect.”

Rex might have asked another question, but Anakin and Ahsoka had returned. The two troopers quickly stopped their line of questioning, not wanting to worry the kids. Immediately, Anakin pulled himself up into Obi-Wan’s lap again, and Obi-Wan wrapped an arm around the kid to keep him steady. With his other hand, he ran comforting motions through Anakin’s hair.

“Doing alright, Mas—Padawan Obi-Wan?” Ahsoka asked. “Not too overwhelming, I hope?”

“I’m alright,” Obi-Wan said. “I’m sure that with the three of you helping me, I’ll manage just fine.”

It was a far more humble tone and statement, but Rex couldn’t help but be reminded of Ahsoka’s overconfidence about Christophsis. She'd had a hell of an introduction to war. If the reports for their mission were reliable, this young Obi-Wan was on track to have much of the same.

Rex didn’t envy Cody one bit. He’d witnessed what it had been like for a Padawan civilian to be broken and reforged by war. He’d hate to have to deal with that again, especially when that padawan would be  _ General Kenobi  _ and he was also  _ the  _ person in charge. The 501st had been able to get Ahsoka some experience before transitioning her into command roles. Cody didn’t have time for that.

Rex only hoped that whatever missions Obi-Wan had been on in his youth had provided some experience with the skillsets one needed in war.

Knowing their luck though, probably not.

They hung around in the office for a bit, since it was nearing dinner time and they wanted to make sure Obi-Wan didn’t have any remaining questions about the mission and what they had available in order to do it. Then, finally, they headed back to the mess hall. Anakin slipped off of Obi-Wan’s lap, and grabbed his offered hand as Ahsoka led them out of the office and Cody and Rex followed behind them.

Anakin still wasn’t sure that he could trust the Mandalorians, but he thought he might be starting to like Rex and Cody. Cody had pretty much won him over when he had dropped everything to take care of Obi-Wan when he was hurt. And Rex immediately decided that he could stay with Obi-Wan when they’d been trying to split them up. Anakin wasn’t sure if he would have been prepared to throw a fit if they’d tried to force it, but he would definitely have made it more of an argument than it had been. Obi-Wan didn’t know the danger of being split up in the company of bounty hunters, but Anakin had been raised in the Outer Rim.

He didn’t trust Rex and Cody, but he liked them.

When they went back to the mess hall, Anakin was genuinely surprised, especially when Obi-Wan gave him a tray and he got to have a meal too. It had only been six hours since they last ate, he hadn’t expected them to feed him again so soon. He wasn’t going to point out their mistake, though.

Anakin barely sat down before he was digging into his food.

“Whoa, Skyguy, slow down!” Padawan Tano said, and Anakin froze. She added, “Don’t want you to choke, there, buddy.”

He thought that maybe she was making fun of him—the tone and the half-smile sort of made it seem that way—but he didn’t know exactly what it was she was mocking him for. Warily, he followed her instruction, eating the food more slowly, keeping an eye on her to try and figure out if she’d meant it seriously or not.

Whatever reaction she’d wanted, he clearly didn’t provide it, as the half-smile slipped into a disappointed frown. She turned her attention to her own tray, carefully cutting the grain-and-starch ration square into little chunks.

Obi-Wan was doing pretty much the same thing to Anakin’s left, picking at the food and eating really slowly like he wasn’t feeling well. Even slowing down at Padawan Tano’s request, Anakin finished his whole meal before Obi-Wan was even halfway through his vegetable mush. Anakin thought he might not have finished it at all if Cody hadn’t kept giving him  _ looks _ . Anakin was glad that Cody was doing so; refusing to eat when you had the option was stupid and dangerous, one never knew for sure if the next meal would actually be there.

The mood at the table was very somber, and Anakin had no idea what to do about it. Usually when his mom was upset about something, Anakin would distract her by talking a bunch about what he’d worked on that day, but he wasn’t sure if Rex still wanted him to be quiet or not and he didn’t know if Obi-Wan would appreciate it. A lot of grownups wanted children to be seen and not heard, especially when they were in a bad mood. So he stayed quiet.

After the meal, Anakin followed Obi-Wan out. Obi-Wan was following Cody, but Ahsoka and Rex said their goodbyes and wandered off. Anakin gave a small wave as they left, wondering where they were going.

Cody made some sort of hand signal and two more clones in white-and-gold armor approached, holding their helmets under their arms. “This is Waxer and Boil, the 212th’s resident child experts,” Cody said. Boil shot him a glare, though Anakin didn’t know what for. “They’ll show you to your rooms,” Cody said. “I’ll send someone to collect you both when it’s time to go back to medical.”

With that, Cody was off as well. Waxer and Boil gave a brief salute and a, “Generals.” Obi-Wan gave a slight bow, so Anakin bowed too. Then they were off.

Most of the way, they walked together. Anakin tried to memorize the way they went, but the durasteel halls all looked the same, and after several turns he was lost. Obi-Wan was making idle conversation with Waxer, but Anakin was so focused on noticing his surroundings that he didn’t hear it.

Then he heard, “This way,  _ verd’ika _ ,”6 and turned left to follow Boil. It took a few moments before he realized that Obi-Wan was no longer with them. Neither was Waxer.

Anakin tried not to panic. This might be it: the moment where the bounty hunters decided to split them up for higher individual bounties than what they’d get as a package deal. Or it might not, and Cody was trustworthy and for some reason Anakin and Obi-Wan had rooms in completely different places. Either way, panicking wouldn’t help. He had to stay calm to keep suspicion low and to make an escape plan if necessary. 

“Come on, kid, we’re almost there,” Boil said. “Just a few more turns and you can clock out for the rest of the evening, alright?”

Anakin realized he’d stopped. He forced his feet to move again, keeping an eye out for droid vents. He was small; it would be much easier for him to escape into the vents if he needed to than it would be for Boil to follow him, especially with all that clunky armor. Then he could find Obi-Wan, save him, and together they could steal a small craft and escape. He’d been listening to the briefing, too, he knew that this ship had 186 V-19s, 143 Eta-2s, and 28 ARC-170s. He wasn’t familiar with any of those specific models, but he could recognize a starship designation when he heard one. As long as they used standard Republic controls, Anakin felt like he could figure it out. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to; Obi-Wan was a free Core-worlder and a Jedi, he should know how to fly a ship by now. Anakin wasn’t counting on that, though; everyone knew that when you took the chance to run, you had to be prepared to rely only on yourself.

Anakin was always prepared to run if necessary. All he needed now was an opportunity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 6verd'ika: private (rank). Can be used affectionately, often to a child, "little soldier"back


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boil isn't really a child expert, but he's had some experience with dealing with Skywalker.

After a few more turns, they stopped at a door.

“This one’s yours,” Boil said.

There was a keypad. “What’s the code?” Anakin asked. This would be a good indicator, he thought. If Boil wouldn’t tell him, this was probably a kidnapping and the “room” would be a holding cell. If Boil  _ did _ tell him, that didn’t  _ entirely _ rule out this being a kidnapping, but it made it more likely that it was fine.

Boil frowned. “I, uh, don’t know, sir,” he said. He sounded almost...embarrassed?

Anakin set aside the absolute  _ weirdness _ of getting called ‘sir’ by someone for the moment and focused on how  _ stupid _ of an excuse that was not to give him the code to the room. “How do we get in then?” he asked.

“...I’ll comm Commander Tano,” Boil said with a sigh. 

Wait.

He  _ genuinely _ didn’t know the code? And was going to ask the  _ Jedi _ for it?

For some reason, that made Anakin feel better. He wasn’t sure he liked Padawan Tano yet, but if Boil was calling in a Jedi to fix the situation, then this probably wasn’t a kidnapping. Yet.

Boil typed out a message on his comm, then crossed his arms and leaned against the wall next to the door. Anakin used the excuse of mimicking him to move to the other side of the door, out of arms’ reach. If he turned out to be wrong about this, or if Padawan Tano turned out to be untrustworthy, he’d need the advantage to make a quick getaway.

“You know,” Boil said. “When you were still a Commander for the 212th...older you, I mean...well, younger older you... _ anyway _ , you told me once that before you were a Jedi, you won a big fancy podrace. Is that something you’ve...already done? Or is that something you don’t know about yet?”

“It’s the Boonta Eve Classic,” Anakin said uncertainly, absolutely thrown off guard at the fact that Boil knew about it. “It’s the biggest podrace on Tatooine. I’m the youngest person  _ ever _ to win, and the  _ only _ human!”

“Stang,” Boil said, suitably impressed. “I mean, you told me that, but for me to actually see you like this...well, it’s just that you’re  _ maybe  _ the size of a second-cycle cadet. How did you manage to do that? Can you even see over the handlebars?”

Anakin hesitantly launched into the tale, getting more excited about it as he got further into the story, and making sure to emphasize all the really wizard parts. Boil made impressed noises at all the right spots. Anakin still didn’t trust Boil, but...he wasn’t exactly sure what to make of him.

Ahsoka had been separated from the team for less than fifteen minutes when she felt panic from Anakin’s end of the bond. Thirty seconds later, she got a text comm from Boil.

_ General Skywalker doesn’t know the room code. Also he’s about two seconds from bolting. Help? _

“Gotta go, Rexter,” Ahsoka said. “Skyguy’s freaking out again.”

“About what?” Rex asked. “It’s been ten minutes!”

“Dunno, but I’m gonna intervene before he pulls an ‘escape from Naboo’ and steals a ship to Coruscant.”

“Good luck,” Rex wished merrily.

Ahsoka huffed and took off, sending comfort and calm through their bond. As she made her way through the halls, she really hoped that Anakin didn’t try to bolt. She wondered what had upset him now. Maybe he was throwing a fit because Obi-Wan went to his own room instead of sticking to Anakin like he was the only person who mattered on this ship.

Ahsoka took a deep breath. That was unfair of her. Anakin was a  _ youngling _ . More than that, Anakin was a  _ scared _ youngling. If Ahsoka was in the same position, with a frightened youngling that she knew and a Jedi she did not who seemed to be fine and got along with everyone, she’d focus on the youngling too.

But dammit, she was scared and upset too and maybe  _ she _ wanted reassurance that it was going to be okay! Was that so much to ask? She wanted her Master to go back to liking her and she wanted her Grandmaster to squeeze her shoulder and promise that he’d make sure everything turned out alright and it  _ wasn’t fair! _ Her master and grandmaster had been unconscious for two days and now they acted like she was chopped eopie!

She took another deep breath and released those feelings into the Force. Life wasn’t fair. She’d learned that lesson many times over during this war. Life wasn’t fair; bad things just happened and whoever was left standing simply had to deal with the fallout.

Ahsoka sped up a bit. The sooner she got there, the more likely it was that she could keep Anakin from taking off. Hopefully, anyway.

No, not hopefully. She  _ would  _ take care of this herself. It was just Skyguy, after all. She knew Skyguy, even if he didn’t know her. She’d get him to trust her again, to be friends again. It would be fine.

She turned the final corner to find that Anakin was in the middle of a re-enactment of the Boonta Eve podrace. She waited for him to get past his favorite part of the telling—where his podracer got caught together with Sebulba’s and he’d had to untangle them before they both crashed—and then called out, “I heard someone was having trouble with the keycode?”

Anakin immediately stopped talking, freezing up for a moment like a startled nuna, and Ahsoka tried not to be disappointed. _Scared youngling_. He was just small and shy, it wasn't a reflection of _her._

Boil smiled at her in relief. “Commander,” he said, giving a brief salute.

“I’ve got it from here if you have things to do, Boil,” Ahsoka said.

“Thank you, Commander,” Boil said. Instead of a salute as he left, he gave her the battle sign for ‘good luck.’

Behind them, Anakin sighed in relief quietly as the door opened to a messy little living quarters. Maybe, just maybe, Obi-Wan was right to trust the Mandalorians.

“Your room is on the left,” Ahsoka said, pointing it out. “Mine’s on the right, stay out of it. Oh, and you should probably take a shower and change before you go back to the medbay. I’ve got a spare set of tunics you can use, since you’re definitely not going to be able to fit in any of your clothes.”

“Shower?” Anakin asked. He had a pretty solid grasp of spoken Basic because Watto dealt with off-worlders all the time, but this wasn’t a word he was familiar with.

“Yeah, because you’ve been unconscious for two days and you kinda smell now. ‘Fresher’s that door.” Ahsoka pointed at the other of the two doors on the left, the one closest to the room they were in.

Anakin peeked inside. It was almost identical to the one on Padmé’s ship, but with a slightly different layout. There was a sink, which presumably used running water (which was still such a  _ weird _ concept, that you could just push up a lever and there was water and you didn’t have to worry if you wasted a drop or two). There was a toilet, and a sonic clothes cleaner. At the back of the room there was the weird tube-like structure that Qui-Gon had just called the sonic, which was just like a sonic clothes cleaner but for people. It was noisy, but effective—the day Qui-Gon showed him how to use it was the first time in Anakin’s entire  _ life _ that he didn’t have sand on him.

“Here you go!” Ahsoka said from just behind him, and Anakin flinched badly. He hadn’t heard her approach.

Ahsoka gave him an apologetic frown and put a set of clothes on top of the clothes cleaner. “You know how to use a sonic shower, right?” she asked.

_ Oh. _ So  _ that’s _ what shower meant.

Anakin nodded.

“Have at it then,” Ahsoka said. Then, patting the clothes cleaner, she added, “Put your dirty clothes in here when you’re done.”

She left. Anakin shut the door, and engaged the privacy lock. He doubted it would stop her if she wanted to get in—she was a Jedi, after all—but a locking door was a locking door.

He showered as quickly as possible, though it took a few minutes to figure out how it worked. It had a slightly different set up than the one on Padmé’s ship, with several more buttons—all of which were labeled, but he was pretty sure the language of the labels was Basic, which he didn’t know how to read. This seemed to be a combination sonic shower and oversized sink, which he found out when he’d pressed one of the buttons and a shock of cold water had sprayed down on him. For a moment, he was terrified that he would get in trouble for wasting water like that, but he pressed another button, and this one actually  _ did _ activate the sonic shower, and the evidence quickly evaporated, leaving not even a wet spot. The sonic left a weird tingling feeling on his skin, kind of like his whole body had fallen asleep, and he wasn’t sure if he liked that or not. It was only for a moment, though, and he was clean now.

The clothes were too big, and Anakin wasn’t sure they’d ever been worn before. That made sense; Ahsoka was a head taller than he was, and these clothes were closer to what Obi-Wan wore than what Ahsoka had been wearing—two modest tunics and loose pants rather than a sleeveless dress and leggings. Anakin wore the same kind of clothes on Tatooine though, so he put them on with ease. He had to put his tunic belt through the pants loops so they would fit around his waist, and roll up the sleeves and legs so they didn’t flop around, but he was clothed, so it worked.

He put his dirty clothes into the cleaner and turned it on. Then, with a deep breath, he left the ‘fresher.

Ahsoka said that the room on the left was his, so he went into it once he was dressed. He tried to be quiet about it, still unsure if he would get in trouble for being here. 

Someone clearly lived here. Supposedly it was him. There was a black and gold arm in a glove on the dresser. He wondered if it was part of C3PO, then disregarded that idea. C3PO was on Tatooine. But maybe he was building another one?

Older him also had  _ four _ sets of tunics! They were  _ black _ too, which was incredibly impractical on Tatooine. Anakin stared at them, still having a hard time believing that he was actually a  _ Jedi _ . He wondered if Qui-Gon had trained him. He wondered how Qui-Gon died, and if he and Obi-Wan had been there or not.

He tiptoed around, seeing what else was in the room. There were some datapads that were password protected, and Anakin couldn’t even  _ guess  _ at what older him would have used as the password. There was armor in the wardrobe, which didn’t look anything like the Mandalorians’ armor. Hidden in a drawer was a box of odds and ends that Anakin couldn’t begin to guess the significance of, but doubted he could ask Ahsoka about.

Anakin took a furtive glance at the door before hopping up on the bed. It was springy, and the blankets were soft. It was like laying on a cloud. Anakin didn’t think he’d be able to sleep on it. Even just laying down made him dizzy; it felt like he might fall through it at any moment.

He scrambled down and left the room, worried he might be caught.

Ahsoka was curled up on the couch, reading a datapad. Anakin wasn’t sure what to do. He defaulted to standing out of the way near a wall close to the door.

After a few minutes, with Ahsoka glancing up a few times and giving him a look that he didn’t know the meaning of, she said, “You can sit down, you know.”

Anakin flinched at the reprimand, and sat down where he was. Ahsoka gave him a flat look. Clearly he’d interpreted what she wanted wrong  _ again _ .

“Skyguy,” she said, like he was annoyingly dense. “Come sit on the couch.”

Nervously, stiffly, quickly, he got up and walked over to where Ahsoka was. He sat on the opposite side of the couch from her, perched on the edge of the couch. He didn’t look at her.

That didn’t mean he didn’t hear her disappointed sigh.

The silence was uncomfortable. He could tell it was uncomfortable for Ahsoka too. Problem was, he didn’t know what to  _ do _ about it. She had said earlier that he was her Jedi Master. Qui-Gon had explained to him that “Master” in Jedi terms meant “teacher” not “slaver,” but he didn’t know how to  _ be _ a teacher. And she was  _ older _ than him, at least he thought she was. He didn’t know what being her teacher meant for their relationship. Was he supposed to boss her around? Was he her friend? Was he supposed to be like her dad? Qui-Gon seemed kind of like a dad to Obi-Wan.

Anakin wished Qui-Gon was here. Qui-Gon would know what to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boil: oh kark oh kriff this kid's about to take off I don't think I can lure it around with a ration bar like I did with Numa what do I do?  
> Boil: sO HOW ABOUT THOSE PODRACES, EH?


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka have some time to kill before the two boys have to report back to medical.

Obi-Wan wished Qui-Gon was here. Qui-Gon would know what to do.

Even just that thought made his broken training bond twinge. Considering Waxer’s lack of reaction, Obi-Wan had managed to keep the pain off his face, at least.

“Here it is, sir,” Waxer said, gesturing to a gray door just like all the others. Hesitantly, Obi-Wan typed in the code that he used for his rooms at the Temple.

The door slid open. That was probably a security issue, but Obi-Wan couldn’t bring himself to care.

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Obi-Wan said, as he entered the room. The room felt...familiar, but  _ off _ . Like when you’re in a nightmare and a familiar place is  _ not quite right _ . Of course, he’d never been here before, but that wasn’t what was off about it. It was the way that his robes were the same color he preferred, but one of them was tossed lazily over the back of a chair rather than put away properly. It was how he recognized the rock that Qui-Gon had given him for his thirteenth birthday, but it was sitting on his desk rather than slipped into his pocket. It was how everything in the room was an unsettlingly close approximation of what he liked, as if someone had been snooping around inside his head, but it was all thrown together hazily like they hadn’t bothered with the precise details. It was almost as jarring as the experience of having hundreds of complete strangers know you personally.

“You alright, General?” Waxer asked.

“Of course, Lieutenant,” Obi-Wan said, mentally shaking off his discomfort.

“Okay, sir,” Waxer said. After a hesitation, he added, “It’s okay to not be okay, though. This is a weird kriffing situation, no one would begrudge you for freaking out a bit. We’re all here for you, sir.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant, but you don’t need to worry about me,” Obi-Wan said. “I’m a Jedi. We’re very good at adapting.”

Obi-Wan could sense irritation from Waxer, but he couldn’t imagine what for. Whatever it was, though, Waxer didn’t voice it. “Of course, sir,” he said instead. “Is there anything else you need?”

“There wouldn’t happen to be any manuals on how to run a war onboard, would there?” Obi-Wan asked dryly.

“I’m sure I can find a shiny who’s kept a copy of the regs,” Waxer said. “I can bring them by later.”

Obi-Wan was nearly stunned. He had meant it as a joke, but they  _ actually had _ manuals on how to run a war. “Yes please,” he said. “Thank you, Lieutenant.”

“Of course, General,” Waxer said. He paused a moment, as if waiting for something, then sighed and left. Obi-Wan shut the door behind him.

The first thing he did was take apart and reassemble his new lightsaber. He was mostly checking for sabotage; it was a habit at this point. You only had to have your survival dependent on a sabotaged lightsaber once for it to have a lasting effect. But taking it apart and reassembling it also let him familiarize himself with the new lightsaber’s build and Force signature—useful things to know, if he damaged or dropped it.

After he’d finished with that, Obi-Wan started to reorganize the room. The  _ wrongness _ of it was almost a physical sensation crawling on his skin. As he folded things, opened and shut drawers, and moved stuff around, he started making a mental list of things he needed to do. He needed to start researching that sith artifact that had apparently caused this whole mess. He needed to read “the regs” once Waxer brought them by, so he could figure out how to run this war. He would probably need to take over both Anakin and Ahsoka’s training for the time being, since he was the most senior Jedi here. He needed to formulate some battle plans based on what Cody, Rex, and Ahsoka had told him during the briefings. He needed to meditate. He needed some hot tea.

Well, that last one was more of a  _ want  _ than a  _ need _ .

Once the room no longer gave him the creepy-crawlies, Obi-Wan picked up the datapad on the desk. He typed in the password that he always used for datapads.

No dice.

On one hand, that was good. If he’d been using the same password as a Jedi Master that he did as a Padawan, that would be  _ inconceivably  _ stupid. Especially as a  _ general _ , who presumably handled classified information all of the time.

On the other hand, he was pretty sure he needed access to this datapad.

He tried to think of another password that he might use. It looked like it was a strictly numerical password, since the keypad just popped up as numbers. A birthday then, perhaps? Whose birthday would he be most likely to use?

Obi-Wan typed in Quinlan’s birthday. Still nothing.

Obi-Wan typed in  _ Satine’s _ birthday.

He was slightly dismayed when it unlocked the datapad. It  _ could _ just be an easy to remember password, but he knew himself. It reeked of attachment to him.

That was a problem for future him, though. Right-now-him needed to send a message to Master Nu requesting information on sith artifacts.

Once that was done, he snooped around on the datapad, vaguely familiarizing himself with the categories of files and programs, if not the files and programs themselves. The only thing he delved into rather than just skimming was the photos folder. Most of them were saved, not taken with the datapad. 

He scrolled through a few of them. Most of them were of a young brown-haired human male with a scar over one eye. He was always grinning, and was clearly a brand-new knight. A few of the pictures also had Ahsoka in them.

Obi-Wan wondered if this was the Padawan Yoda said he’d raised. He hoped the boy would forgive him for not knowing who he was. He also hoped that his Padawan and Anakin’s Padawan got along well, though from the pictures it seemed like they did. He and Anakin must team up fairly often, for their Padawans to be around each other enough to be friends and take pictures together in the middle of a war.

Idly, he wondered who Anakin’s Master had been. Maybe they were Padawan-brothers? He couldn’t really imagine Qui-Gon giving Anakin up, not with how attached he’d immediately gotten to the boy and his supposed destiny. He’d probably taken Anakin as soon as Obi-Wan had been Knighted.

Qui-Gon would have insisted that he was not attached to Anakin, would have said that he was just following the will of the Force. But Obi-Wan knew that his Master’s vice was always attachment. Qui-Gon got attached to everything. Plants, animals, Padawan-siblings, fallen Padawans. Everything but him.

Though...maybe even him? If he hadn’t dissolved their training bond upon Knighthood, that was pretty indicative that Qui-Gon liked being able to sense Obi-Wan. Maybe they’d managed to finally fix the fissures in their relationship. Maybe Obi-Wan was one of Qui-Gon’s pathetic life-forms as well.

Obi-Wan choked back a sob.

He wondered how soon into Anakin’s Padawancy Qui-Gon had died. Had he been Knighted by Qui-Gon? Had he had two Masters? Did he have a broken Force bond as well?

He was startled out of his grief by a knock at the door. Obi-Wan took a deep breath, releasing his emotions into the Force. Then, projecting only serenity, Obi-Wan opened the door.

“General,” Waxer greeted.

“Lieutenant,” Obi-Wan said.

Waxer held out a datachip. “The regs,” he explained. “Copied ‘em off a shiny from the 501st, he kept the whole set.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant.”

“Yes sir. I’ll come back when it’s time to take you to medical.”

With that, Waxer was off.

Obi-Wan took a deep breath. He could break down later. Right now, there was too much to do.

“You like fixing droids, don’t you?”

Anakin flinched, not expecting the question. They’d been sitting in silence for what seemed like forever, all previous attempts at conversation dying quickly and awkwardly.

“I guess,” Anakin said, careful not to express too much interest.

“There’s a mousedroid on deck 7 that keeps malfunctioning,” Ahsoka said. “I was thinking maybe we could take it apart together, see if we could figure out what’s wrong with it.”

“Okay,” Anakin said noncommittally. 

“Okay,” Ahsoka said. “Let’s go get it then.”

They set off again. Ahsoka walked fast; Anakin practically had to run to keep up. It was even harder to keep track of where they were going with Ahsoka than with Boil. It would make him nervous, but...he didn’t know. Something told him that she was trustworthy.

Also Qui-Gon walked much faster than Ahsoka did, and Obi-Wan walked about the same, so maybe that was just a Jedi thing. He was starting to see why all of them tried to hold your hand or put a hand on your shoulder almost automatically; it was easy to lose anyone following you when your slow walk was a normal person’s jogging.

By the time they made it to deck 7, Anakin was breathing hard. Ahsoka didn’t look affected at all.

The mechanics were all delighted to see them. It was just like at lunch, when everyone kept coming up to their table to make sure he and Obi-Wan were alright, except this time Obi-Wan wasn't there to deflect the attention off of Anakin. They seemed to genuinely care about whether or not he was okay, too, but it was still such a weird experience that he found himself half-hiding behind Ahsoka. He kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. No one was this nice for no reason except Jedi.

“Sorry guys,” Ahsoka finally apologized. “It’s been a long and strange day for him.”

“Only for him, sir?” one of the mechanics asked.

Ahsoka smiled a bit. “Alright, it’s been a long and strange day for all of us, but especially for him.”

There were what sounded like jeers in Mandalorian, and Anakin didn’t know what was said but it made Ahsoka grin. She said her goodbyes and handed him the little black droid. “Ready to go work on this?” she asked him.

“Yeah, I think so,” Anakin said.

They walked out, and this time, Ahsoka slowed down enough that Anakin didn’t have to run to keep up. That was good, because Anakin wasn’t sure he would be able to run with the mousedroid in his arms.

Looking at the outer casing of the droid, Anakin couldn’t see anything obviously wrong with it. Ahsoka hadn’t said what the problem was supposed to be either, just that it was recurring. Considering that it was part of a fleet—Anakin had seen several other mice throughout the day—it probably wasn’t something with the programming; simple droids didn’t tend to spontaneously develop new programming or bugs unless someone was messing with them. It could be a short in the circuitry, especially if something wet, sticky, or gritty had gotten into it where it wasn’t supposed to be. That ought to be an easily identifiable problem though, something any mechanic would spot if they’d opened it, so he could probably rule that out. Unless they’d saved it for him and Ahsoka for some reason? Maybe it was a test. Or a lesson object for her? He couldn’t imagine  _ not _ teaching any student of his how to fix up a droid or a ship. Unless Jedi weren’t supposed to know that stuff? But he thought they did, otherwise Qui-Gon would have needed to hire a mechanic in addition to getting the part for Padmé’s ship, and he hadn’t done that.

“Whatcha thinking about, Skyguy?” Ahsoka asked, after a few minutes of silent walking.

“Nothing, Padawan Tano,” Anakin replied automatically.

“You can call me Ahsoka,” she said gently. “I’m your Padawan, it’s okay to be familiar.”

The problem with that statement, Anakin thought, was that they  _ weren’t _ familiar. She was a complete stranger to him, even if he  _ was _ her Master in this future-sort-of-thing. Still, he could understand a reprimand when he heard one, no matter how gentle the tone was.

“Okay, Ahsoka,” he said.

She gave him a small smile.

It was a start. Maybe he could figure this out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It occurred to me the other day that technically all Coruscanti Jedi are city people. They probably all walk insanely fast lmao.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to go back to medical for overnight observation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is longer than usual, but there was no good place to cut it, so have some bonus words lmao!

Waxer was worried about the General.

This wasn’t a new thing. The 212th was always worried about their General. But the worry seemed to get way worse now that their general was a babyfaced shiny.

He was used to Obi-Wan lying directly to his face about how he was feeling, but the fact that this personality trait was over ten years old worried him a  _ lot _ . Waxer had thought that the reason Obi-Wan lied was because he was stupidly attempting to keep morale up, or because he weirdly thought that the men were more important than he was.

Now it turned out Obi-Wan had been lying about the state of himself for longer than Waxer had been alive.

He wasn’t sure what to make of that.

He saw this behavior, sometimes, in the refugees they rescue from battlefields. They insist they’re fine, that they don’t need the troopers’ help, even when they’re clearly in shock or injured. Usually, it stems from fear of the troopers, or fear in general. Was the General afraid, then?

Was the General afraid of his troopers?

Even the thought of it was ridiculous. Obi-Wan wasn’t afraid of  _ them _ . Or was he? Maybe he wasn’t afraid of  _ all _ the troopers normally, but was he afraid of the medics? He’d heard that Kix had somehow frightened General Skywalker when the two of them woke up, who’s to say he didn’t scare Obi-Wan as well? Would that have put Shiny Obi-Wan off enough to be afraid of the troopers? Or was he just _ like that  _ since the beginning of time?

It was a lot to think about. Maybe he should consult with Boil over this. And Cody.

When Waxer arrived to take Obi-Wan back to the medbay, he was almost visibly relieved with how much less disheveled his general looked. His weird haircut (the traditional Padawan haircut in his lineage, he remembered Obi-Wan explaining it at the very beginning of the war, when Anakin had still been a Commander and not a General) had been tidied up, with the back part tied up with a ribbon and the long side bit twisted into a thin braid. He’d also shaved the two-day stubble he’d gotten from the medical bay. He’d changed and freshened up, and if it weren’t for the short haircut and clean-shaven face, he’d look just the way he usually did, Jedi serenity and all.

“Evening, Lieutenant Waxer,” Obi-Wan greeted.

“Sir,” Waxer said amicably.

“I suppose it’s time to go back to medical?”

Waxer didn’t have Cody’s skill in determining Obi-Wan’s subtle moods by the degree of neutrality his face displayed, but even he could see the stiff displeasure in Obi-Wan’s posture. This, at least, was familiar. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be nearly as obstinate as he usually was.

“Yes sir,” Waxer said. “We’re stopping to get Skywalker first, though.”

He’d heard how Ahsoka had had to leave the room laughing earlier today because Obi-Wan had told Anakin that he always needed to follow a medic’s orders. He hoped that having Anakin around would make Obi-Wan more reasonable due to the need to set a good example for his  _ kih’vod _ .

Outwardly, Waxer didn’t see any obvious change in Obi-Wan’s expression or posture, but he seemed to wilt nevertheless.

“Lead the way, Lieutenant,” Obi-Wan said neutrally.

Waxer did so, only looking back twice to make sure Obi-Wan was following.

They knocked on the door, and it opened quickly enough. Somebody must have used the Force to open it, because both Anakin and Ahsoka were sitting on the floor, disassembling a mousedroid. For a moment, Obi-Wan was proud of Anakin for making new friends. It was only for a moment, though, because after that he felt the force of the tense awkwardness that the two of them were radiating. Both of them were clearly uncomfortable being around each other.

Ah, well. At least they were  _ trying _ to be friends. Ahsoka’s obviously been Anakin’s Padawan for a few years now, so he doubted they’d outright hate each other. In a few days’ time, they’d probably be best friends.

(The niggling voice in the back of his head reminded him that sometimes there  _ were _ Master-Padawan pairs that had incredibly strained relationships, even if they hid their incompatibility from the outside world very well. He ignored the voice when it said that  _ he _ was in one of those pairs throughout his youth. He and Qui-Gon had worked it out in the end.)

“Obi-Wan!” Anakin said, brightening up immensely once he caught sight of the senior Padawan and scrambling up to hug him. It was still so strange to Obi-Wan how quickly Anakin had warmed up to him.

No less strange was the look of almost hostile jealousy that flashed across Ahsoka’s face before being carefully smoothed out into, if not serenity, at least only mild annoyance. It still knocked him off-balance, trying and failing to figure out what his position was in the relationship between her and Anakin and his own padawan that he’d yet to have even seen, much less met.

“Are you ready to go back to medical?” Obi-Wan asked, deciding that that was also another problem for later.

Anakin tensed up at that. “Uh…” he said. “I have to clean up the droid parts first.”

Obi-Wan almost laughed. Crècheling or not, it seemed that all children reacted the same when it came to doing things they didn’t want to do.

“Don’t worry about it, Skyguy,” Ahsoka said. “I’ll finish disassembling it tonight, and then you can fix it up tomorrow, okay?”

“...Okay,” Anakin said.

“Oh, and Ma—Obi-Wan, you should put your lightsaber in your room,” Ahsoka said. “The medics get irritated when there’s weapons in the medbay. Battle instincts, y’know.”

“Alright,” Obi-Wan said, displeased by that line of logic but understanding the reasoning behind it.

“Take this one too,” Ahsoka said, tossing one of the three that were on her belt. “It’s Anakin’s, I think it would be best for you to hold onto it since he no longer knows how to use it.”

“...Alright,” Obi-Wan said, not quite following that line of logic but willing to hold onto it nevertheless.

He, Waxer, and Anakin made their way back to his room. As they walked through the halls, they passed a blue and white astromech droid. It froze as they passed, and then whipped around, shrieking at them as it trundled forward as fast as it could.

Obi-Wan took a step back.

Anakin lit up and bolted towards it. “You’re one of Padmé’s droids!” he said gleefully.

The droid chirped and shrieked at him, and he started to click and chirp back, somewhat slower than the droid. What followed was a short conversation where Anakin became progressively more confused but delighted. Obi-Wan didn’t know much Binary, and couldn’t figure out what the conversation was about beyond the fact that it seemed to be accusing someone—probably either him or Anakin—of getting into trouble. And though he couldn’t understand the words, the droid’s exasperation with them was very evident in its tone.

“Follow us, R2, and you can tell me all about it on the way,” Anakin suddenly said in Basic.

Obi-Wan took that as the cue that it was, and started walking again towards his quarters, Waxer and Anakin following. Waxer was grinning as Anakin and the R2 unit beeped at each other.

“No matter what happens, looks like those two are still inseparable,” he said.

“I thought Anakin said that was one of Padmé’s droids?” Obi-Wan said.

Waxer shrugged. “That droid’s been following him around for as long as I’ve known you two,” he said. “If it belonged to the senator, she must have given it to him at some point. Might have even traded straight across: she’s got an obnoxious protocol droid that General Skywalker apparently built.”

Obi-Wan supposed that made sense. The two kids were clearly fast friends, and if she’d become a senator that would mean she spent ample time on Coruscant, making it very easy for them to maintain a friendship into adulthood. A protocol droid would be much more useful in the Senate than an astromech, and the reverse was true on the battlefield, especially if Anakin had learned to pilot.

Finally, they made it to his room. Waxer, Anakin, and the droid politely waited outside while he quickly stashed the lightsabers. He glanced around, looking for somewhere that was hidden enough a thief wouldn’t find them while he was in the medbay. His own, he hid in the tidy folds of one of his tunics. For Anakin’s, he pulled out the bottom drawer of the wardrobe and tucked it into the space underneath, taking care to make sure the drawer still moved smoothly afterwards and didn’t catch. Not only would a dysfunctional drawer be suspicious, but if it managed to catch the safety, and the lightsaber turned on, it would be a hazard. Once he’d done that, he allowed himself a tired sigh and returned to the three waiting for him.

The droid followed them all the way to the medbay, and then Anakin sent it away with a friendly pat on its dome, promising that it could come find him tomorrow if it wanted to. The droid screeched something that sounded like a warning not to get into trouble, then trundled off. Waxer also said his goodbyes, and they were left in the supervision of the medics.

Kix was not the medical officer on duty this time. Tonight they were tended to by Bones and Suture from the 212th. It seemed to Obi-Wan that the clone medics all had a similar personality, which they shared with Temple healers. They were strict, no-nonsense, and preemptively irritated with Obi-Wan. These two, at least, seemed to take care not to frighten Anakin.

Since Obi-Wan was not actually injured, but just on observation, he figured he could use this time in the medbay to read up on the regs. No sooner had he pulled his datapad out of a pocket, however, than Bones had said, “Put that away, General. No one’s allowed to be on duty in this medbay but the medics.”

Obi-Wan jumped. Bones was across the bay, and he had his back turned to him! Unless Bones was Force-Sensitive, there should be no way for him to know what Obi-Wan was doing! 

He narrowed his eyes, but did as the medic said. He had to set a good example for Anakin.

“Can we meditate?” Anakin asked.

The request surprised Obi-Wan a little. They’d done it once aboard the ship with Qui-Gon, but Anakin didn’t really seem to enjoy it (not that  _ any _ crècheling really enjoyed it, it was an acquired taste that often took well into Padawancy to acquire).

“Of course, Anakin,” Obi-Wan said. “I’ll even let you lay down during it, if you want.”

Anakin shook his head, and sat on the medical cot cross-legged. “I want to do it like Qui-Gon taught,” he said.

Obi-Wan gave a nod. “Alright,” he said. “ _ I’m _ going to lay down though. I’m going to set up some shields around us, too. There’s lots of people on this ship, it’ll be much harder to meditate without the shields.”

Obi-Wan took a deep breath, and sank into the Force. Gently, he wrapped it around both himself and Anakin, and the background pain and suffering of the medbay dulled considerably while the presences of anyone beyond the medbay faded out. He reinforced the shields on both sides, so nothing would get in to bother them and likewise Anakin wouldn’t be leaking through and bothering everyone else.

“Wow,” Anakin whispered. “Can you show me how to do that?”

“Mm-hm,” Obi-Wan muttered. “You have to learn push-pull first though.”

It was the easiest meditation Obi-Wan had done so far with Anakin, if not the most effective. Neither of them had wanted to sort through their inner conflict tonight, so Obi-Wan focused on just the surface level action of meditation. The focus on breathing, the gentle way of reaching out to the Force and allowing it to move through you, the way to bring serenity to your thought process, if not your actual thoughts. They could work on actual thoughts later, when the medics were less likely to yell at them for using the Force in the medbay.

They got through almost twenty minutes of meditation when Anakin fell asleep, if Obi-Wan was reading the chrono right. Obi-Wan caught Anakin with the Force when he toppled over, and gently laid him flat on his cot. Then he floated the thin thermafoil sheet to rest on top of Anakin and tucked it in.

Obi-Wan didn’t stop meditating when Anakin did. He kept the shields up, and let the Force flow through him. He enjoyed meditation, himself, and he so rarely got to do meditation for meditation’s sake. Usually, he was meditating  _ on _ something or he was meditating to work  _ through _ something. He couldn’t do that with Anakin right here though, inside his shields; that would just wake him up again. And the medics  _ did _ say he wasn’t allowed to do any work. So for now, he had a soft meditation, where he asked nothing of the Force and it asked nothing of him.

When he, too, got tired, Obi-Wan started to gradually let down the shields. Hopefully, he could do it gently enough that it didn’t disturb Anakin’s sleep. He grit his teeth as the pain of the medbay seeped back into his awareness. Being the Padawan of one of the most skilled negotiators the Order had to offer meant that Obi-Wan had thirteen years’ experience in dealing with other people’s pain. It didn’t mean it ever really got easier.

Anakin stirred, but did not wake. That was good. Hopefully he’d sleep through the whole night tonight, though Obi-Wan doubted it. On the Queen’s ship, Anakin had been a fitful sleeper. Being thrust into a new and scary situation on top of the new and scary situation he was already in with no warm, comforting presence of Qui-Gon or solid, confident Padmé to lead the way didn’t exactly bode well for rest and relaxation.

He doubted he’d be getting much sleep either, he never did in the medbay, but at least if he kept his eyes closed and stayed still, the medics were unlikely to bother him. So he kept his eyes closed, pretending to sleep, and thought about how nice it would be when he finally got back to the Temple.

Bones knew there were Force shenanigans going on in the medbay.

He was a medic, not a Jedi, so he couldn’t say for certain what the nature of those shenanigans  _ were, _ but he knew they were going on.

He knew Anakin had been doing meditation. That was easy to spot; the pose gave it away across the medbay. He was surprised that Obi-Wan wasn’t doing it with him. Obi-Wan meditated like it was a competitive sport.

He also knew that Obi-Wan had used the Force to catch Anakin when he fell asleep meditating. Bones pretended he didn’t see it, so he didn’t have to call Obi-Wan out for using the Force in medical. He’d much rather that than have to deal with a concussed tiny Skywalker.

There was something else, though, that Bones was certain had to do with the Force, that he wasn’t sure about. About an hour after Anakin fell asleep, there was something...weird, that happened to both of them at the same time. Bones was very good at trusting his instincts, and his instincts said the Force was responsible.

Anakin, who was asleep, suddenly stirred, whining like he was in pain. Obi-Wan, who was doing a good job of lying very still and a poor job of pretending he was sleeping, tensed up like he was expecting a sedative shot. After a moment, the two settled back down, but not in the peaceful way they’d been before. Anakin curled into himself like he was trying to subconsciously make himself less of a target. Obi-Wan relaxed to about a six instead of an eight, but considering that he’d previously been at a two, that wasn’t exactly great.

Bones took note of it on his datapad. Then, because he was a good medic, he went over to check on the two of them.

As he got nearer, he saw Obi-Wan tense up even more, back to a seven. He wasn’t sure if that was due to the Force pain or his presence.

“You alright, General Kenobi?” He kept his voice low to keep Anakin from waking up.

Obi-Wan flinched at being caught, but nodded.

Bones gave him a  _ look. _ “Really?” he asked.

The tension was now at an eight. Definitely his presence then.

“I’m fine,” Obi-Wan whispered, sitting up. 

_ Banthashit _ .

“And him?” Bones asked, nodding at Anakin.

“He’s sleeping,” Obi-Wan said, seeming to deliberately miss the point.

“General, I’m not stupid,” Bones said. “I know there’s Force things happening, and it’s causing you pain.”

“Actually—”

Behind them, a trooper gasped in pain as he moved in his sleep and disturbed an injury.

Anakin flinched awake and sat up. Obi-Wan looked up at the ceiling and Bones saw him physically hold in an annoyed sigh.

“Obi-Wan?” Anakin asked.

“Go back to sleep, Ani,” Obi-Wan said gently.

“No wait,” Bones said. “Since you’re awake, verd’ika, do you hurt anywhere?”

Anakin nervously looked at Obi-Wan.

“Be honest to the medic, Ani, he’s only trying to help,” Obi-Wan said. His tone was flat, and his expression was blank tiredness.

Anakin frowned silently for a moment, as if assessing himself. “I don’t...think I hurt?” he said, like he was unsure.

“Elaborate on that,” Bones said.

Anakin gave him a blank look, then turned to Obi-Wan imploringly. Obi-Wan said something to him in what sounded like Huttese.

“Oh,” Anakin said. “Um. The inside of my head feels like it’s being squished, but I don’t think it...hurts? I don’t... _ like _ it, but it’s not  _ pain _ .”

Bones frowned. It could just be a pressure headache. Still, they were in here to be observed. It was best to observe everything they could. “I’m going to scan you just to make sure everything’s normal, alright?”

Anakin nodded.

Bones took out the scanner and scanned Anakin’s head. Nothing showed up abnormal. That meant it was  _ likely _ that it was just a pressure headache, but Bones knew from experience that the Force didn’t show up on scans.

“Okay, General, your turn to be honest to the medic,” Bones said dryly. “Firstly, do you know if the way Anakin’s feeling is related to some kind of Force stuff?”

“It is,” Obi-Wan said. “Anakin hasn’t learned to build shields yet, and there’s a  _ lot _ of people on this ship. It’ll be an uncomfortable adjustment for a few days.”

“Secondly, I  _ know _ something with the Force just happened. Both of you simultaneously reacted like you were in pain, and it didn’t happen to anyone else in the room. So. Where do  _ you _ hurt?”

“ _ I _ am not in pain,” Obi-Wan said. “I had shields up for meditation, and when I took them down we both had to adjust.”

Bones gave him a look. For his part, Obi-Wan did not squirm under the Medic Stare.

“Like I said, there’s a lot of people on the ship,” Obi-Wan defended.

“You grew up on  _ Coruscant,” _ Bones said.

“Which is why I  _ don’t  _ hurt,” Obi-Wan said. “But taking down the shield is like stepping into bright sunshine, it takes a moment to adjust to it.”

Bones wasn’t sure if he believed Obi-Wan, but that might be the most the Jedi would be willing to tell him.

“Alright,” he said. “If you  _ are _ in pain, though, you need to tell us so we can help you. You understand that, right? Medics aren’t your enemy, and we can’t help you if you’re hiding things from us.”

“Yes, Medic Bones,” Obi-Wan said dutifully.

“Yes, Medic Bones,” Anakin parroted.

Bones stayed for a moment, just in case they were feeling inclined to take his advice. When neither of them said anything, he frowned and left them to get some sleep.

Obi-Wan flopped back onto the cot, and Anakin mimicked him, snuggling under the thermafoil. “Be sure to remember that, Ani,” Obi-Wan mumbled. “Don’t hide things from the medic, they’re not your enemy.”

Obi-Wan was surprised when Anakin looked conflicted about that statement.

“How can you  _ trust _ them so easy?” Anakin mumbled.

“The medics?” Obi-Wan asked. “They go through a lot of training in order to know how to heal people, plus they swear an oath, plus there’s laws in place to keep them from committing medical malpractice. And if that’s not enough...well, I can typically sense in the Force if people are a danger or not. The medics here aren’t going to hurt us.”

“But they’re  _ bounty hunters _ ,” Anakin said.

Now that just confused Obi-Wan. “Where did you get that idea?” he asked softly.

“They’re Mandalorians!” Anakin hissed. “Everyone knows that if you see a Mandalorian off Mandalore, they’re a bounty hunter!”

Obi-Wan closed his eyes for a moment, fighting the urge to roll them. It was very rude to roll your eyes at a youngling who only knew what they’d been taught.

“They’re not bounty hunters,” Obi-Wan said. “Contrary to popular belief, Mandalorians can be found in every type of job and living style, whether or not they live on Mandalore. Mandalore is part of the Republic; their citizens have the same freedom of movement as anyone else.”

“What’s freedom of movement?” Anakin asked.

“It means that you can work and live on nearly any planet you want, regardless of what planet your citizenship is for.”

“Oh,” Anakin said. “I don’t think we have that on Tatooine.”

“Well, as a Jedi of the Coruscant Temple, you’d be made a citizen of Coruscant if you were born outside the Republic, so I’m sure it applies to you now as well,” Obi-Wan said. “You probably have dual citizenship for both Tatooine and Coruscant.”

Anakin stayed quiet for a few moments, seemingly thinking about that. Finally, he said, “You’re  _ sure _ they’re not bounty hunters?”

“Absolutely,” Obi-Wan said. “If they were, they wouldn’t all have matching armor and call themselves ‘troopers’ and be fighting a war. They’re soldiers and medics, Ani, not bounty hunters. I think we can trust them not to kidnap us for money.”

Anakin frowned, but seemed to accept his logic. “Okay, Obi-Wan,” he said.

“Goodnight, Anakin.”

“Night, Obi-Wan.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once they wake up, the medics clear them as free to go. There's a war going on, and preparations are being made all around Anakin.

When they woke up, Medic Coric officially cleared them as good to return to their rooms. Before they could, Ahsoka stole them away to the mess hall for breakfast. Anakin had never been fed so often in his life. He hoped it wasn’t a weird accident. 

Obi-Wan was polite during breakfast, but he didn’t seem particularly present. He was thinking very hard about something, that much Anakin could tell, but he had no idea what about. He ate all his food and drank a whole cup of caf without Ahsoka having to glare him into it, though, so Anakin thought it couldn’t be  _ too _ worrying.

Once they’d finished eating, Ahsoka dragged Anakin back to their rooms and Obi-Wan left for his. Anakin’s tunics had been cleaned, so he could wear some clothes that were less gigantic on him.

“The mechanics requested that you come hang out with them today,” Ahsoka said from the other side of the door as Anakin changed. “Do you want to go?”

“Sure!” Anakin called back. Everyone had tried to get him to spend time with the mechanics yesterday, and it sounded like they were only going to keep trying, so he might as well get it over with. Maybe older-him was  _ supposed _ to be with the mechanics all the time. That didn’t sound very Jedi, but a lot of things he thought about Jedi had turned out to be not exactly true in the last few days, so why not this one? And Obi-Wan had said that the Mandalorians weren’t bounty hunters, and if they weren’t bounty hunters, then it would be okay if he went and worked on ships for a while. It might even be fun; Anakin liked working on things.

And if it turned out that he and Obi-Wan needed to get out quick, having some familiarity with the available ships would be a huge advantage.

“Some things never change, huh Skyguy?” Ahsoka mumbled. Before Anakin could figure out whether he was supposed to respond to that, she continued, louder, “Okay, we can go as soon as you’re ready!”

Anakin hurried to tie up his tunics and return to the common room. “Ready!” he said.

“Alright, let’s go,” Ahsoka said. She notably did not hold out her hand for him to hold as she opened the door.

Captain Rex stood there, one hand raised to knock, the other holding several sets of folded clothing.

“Commander,” he said.

“Hi Rexter!” Ahsoka said. “What’s up?”

“The mechanics have been bugging me to let the general come and work on ships,” Rex said. “Thought I’d stop by and ask if he wanted to get dirty today. Also we managed to find some cadet uniforms that might fit him.”

That wasn’t all of it, Ahsoka could tell, but it was a convenient excuse.

“We were just on our way down,” Ahsoka said. “Why don’t you join us?”

“Of course, Little’un,” he said, handing her the small pile of uniforms.

“Now wait a minute, I can’t be Little’un when there’s an itty-bitty kid on board!” Ahsoka protested, setting the uniforms on the couch. “Even if it’s Master Skywalker!”

“Not how it works,” Rex said, a smile in his voice. “You were Little’un first, so you get to be Little’un forever.”

“That’s so not fair!”

“Sure it is,” Rex said. “It’s like how there’s no other Rexes in Torrent Company. I was first, so no one else gets to claim it.”

Ahsoka pouted, but conceded the point. Actually, now that he explained it, she felt kind of...honored, that Rex was giving her a nickname that no one else was allowed to share. Like she was one of his siblings.

“So how are the preparations going?” she asked as they walked, vague enough to keep Anakin out of the loop. She didn’t want to frighten him any more than necessary. He was already clearly uncomfortable in her presence, if yesterday had been any indication.

“Ahead of schedule,” Rex said. “I think we should start planning. Cody agrees.”

“Can we do that? I thought Grandmaster was in charge.”

“I think we ought to draw up something workable, and then present it to him,” Rex said. “Considering the circumstances.”

Ahsoka frowned, but it  _ was _ the most logical decision. Like it or not, Obi-Wan was kind of a civilian right now. She doubted he knew anything more about war tactics than she did when she was dropped off at Christophsis, and considering how many bad ideas she’d had there, it might be best if he was left out of the initial planning.

“Okay,” she said. “After lunch?”

“Sounds good; I’ll arrange it,” Rex said.

Ahsoka looked back to make sure Anakin was still following. He was; there was a frown on his face like he was trying to puzzle the two older ones out. As soon as she looked back, though, his eyes dropped to the floor.

“Doing okay, Skyguy?” Ahsoka asked.

“Yes, Padawan Ta—Ahsoka,” Anakin replied.

It was kind of weird, how polite and formal he was. She wondered what had happened between then and now. She would have thought that little polite Initiate Skywalker would have grown up more like Master Negotiator Master Kenobi, rather than the blunt, often rude Master that he was.

She supposed that rebellion was natural for human teenagers, though. Anakin had probably decided that he and Master Kenobi were too alike, and decided to become blunt and brash just to stand out.

The closer they got to the hangar, the more excited and nervous Anakin got. He tried his best to contain it, but he was practically bouncing by the time they arrived. Ahsoka could feel his anxiety in the Force, but there was anticipation as well. It was nice; so often did she reach out and feel only anger and grief.

The mechanics and engineers were excited to see Anakin, and they cheered and bounced him around once they saw him. Ahsoka and Rex waved their goodbyes, having things to do, and went their separate ways.

The mechanics continued ruffling his hair and saying hello for a good two minutes after Ahsoka and Rex left. The only reason Anakin tolerated it was because it was so baffling. Was this going to happen  _ every _ time a group of Mandalorians was around him or Obi-Wan? They didn’t do this to  _ Ahsoka _ .

Once the mechanics finally calmed down, Anakin heard one of them mutter, “He’s so little...do you think he even knows anything about mechanics yet?”

“I’m  _ great _ at mechanics,” Anakin snapped, hackles raising immediately. “I can fix anything!”

The Mandalorians around him laughed, and this? This Anakin was used to. His hands balled into fists, knowing that they were about to give him some banthashit test to try and confuse him, or worse, put him on some stupid easy thing because they didn’t believe him.

Someone ruffled his hair again. “Yep, he’s still our General!” the Mando said.

Another one stepped forward. He didn’t look any different than the others, but Anakin knew this one was the leader. The Mando stroked his chin, the same way Anakin had seen Cody do a couple times.

“I think I’ll put you with 2460,” he muttered. “You two are the smallest, you can get repairs that’ll be difficult for the rest of us.”

That was easy enough, Anakin thought. Watto had him do that all the time. He’d prove his worth quickly enough.

“Speedie, get over here,” the leader called.

Another Mando rushed over, snapping a salute. “Sir!” he said. Anakin noticed that this one was a good ten centimeters smaller than everyone else, and didn’t look much older than Ahsoka.

“You’re working with the General today,” the leader said. 

“Sir?” the kid squeaked out, giving a nervous glance at Anakin. He seemed...scared? Scared of  _ Anakin? _

“You heard me. You and General Skywalker are gonna be working on the hard-to-reach stuff. Dimple’ll tell you what you need to do.”

“...Yes sir.”

The leader clapped him on the shoulder good-naturedly. “Maybe the General will be able to get you to learn the difference between a hydrospanner and a hydrothermic regulator,” he joked. The kid glowered at him. “Dismissed,” the leader said.

Stiffly, the kid turned to Anakin. He gave a quick salute—which Anakin was not expecting at  _ all _ —and said, “This way, sir.”

Anakin followed him, reeling from what had just happened. Not only had he been called sir again, but now they were  _ saluting _ him? What the  _ kriff? _

The kid brought him to another Mando. This one had a large scar across the left side of his head where no hair grew. The right side of his head was covered in short curls, giving him a somewhat unbalanced look. He grinned when he saw the two of them approach.

“Hey, cadets!” he said.

“I’m not a cadet,” the kid said, scowling.

“Barely,” the other Mando said. He flicked a careless salute at Anakin. “I’m Dimple, if you don’t remember me.”

“Hi,” Anakin said. “I’m Anakin.”

“I know,” Dimple said. “It’s good to have you back down here, we were all awfully worried when you were stuck in the medbay.”

Dimple set them up on a nearby ship. It was made for one person and an astromech—a fighter. Anakin clambered up into the engine compartment, checking for what was wrong. He spotted the loose hose immediately, wedged down in between the engine block and the plasmatic filter casing. What he  _ didn’t  _ see was the clamp that should be holding it in place.

“I need a hose clamp and a hexer wrench,” he called out, looking at the kid. He didn’t know if the kid would help him or if he was going to have to get it himself. The leader had seemed to imply that they would be working together, but who knew what sort of test this was?

Nervously, the kid darted for a tool set. He looked back and forth, and uncertainly grabbed a Cresh clamp.

“No,” Anakin called out.

The kid flinched. This time he reached for a pinch clamp.

“Nuh-uh,” Anakin said. “It’s a circle. Silver.”

The kid finally grabbed the right object. He picked up the multi-hexer and brought them back to Anakin.

“Thank you,” Anakin said, letting him hold them until Anakin had managed to tug the hose out of the small crevice it had wedged itself into. Then he slipped the hose clamp onto the hose, and fussed the hose onto its proper fitting. “Your name’s...Speedie, right?”

“No,” the kid said. “I don’t have a name yet. My number’s CT-2460.”

“Oh,” Anakin said, tightening the clamp with his hands. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too, sir.”

“When do you get a name?”

2460 shrugged. “Whenever I do something notable enough to get a name, I guess. Knowing me, it’s going to be something like Mixup or Di’kut.”[7]

“You don’t pick your name?”

2460 shrugged again. “I might, if I come up with something good. Dimple says ‘Sometimes the trooper picks the name, sometimes the name picks the trooper.’”

“Oh,” Anakin said. “My mom picked my name. She’s dead now.”

“Oh,” 2460 said. “That’s, uh...I’m really sorry for your loss.”

Anakin shrugged, now using the hexer to get the clamp nice and tight. It was weird, talking about this. It didn’t even feel  _ real _ . He’d just seen his mom two days ago! He  _ knew _ she was dead,  _ somehow _ , but it just didn’t make  _ sense _ . And he felt  _ guilty _ about it not making sense, about not mourning her yet, because it just didn’t seem possible that she  _ was _ dead. Qui-Gon said that he was going to go back and free her when he had the opportunity, and he was a  _ Jedi _ , and so logically she should be somewhere on Coruscant and happy and fine, but Qui-Gon was dead  _ too _ , and none of it made  _ any _ sense at  _ all! _

Anakin wiggled the hose a bit just to make sure that it was secure, then slipped the hexer into his pocket and stood up on the engine block, looking around to see if there was anything else wrong with the ship. Engines made sense. Ship repair made sense. He still had to prove himself to the Mandalorians, because even if they  _ weren’t _ bounty hunters, any of them could decide any moment that being a soldier wasn’t that great actually, and the profit to be made from young Force-sensitives was enough to jumpstart any deserter’s career. And he couldn’t be a Jedi if he was kidnapped away from Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, and he’d promised his mom that he’d become the best Jedi ever, and he  _ had _ to do that. Even if she wouldn’t be able to see it. He’d  _ promised  _ her.

He could figure out all the confusing emotions stuff later.

“Ready for the next one?” Dimple asked, grinning. He looked...proud? Yeah, he looked  _ proud _ of him and the kid. Anakin didn’t know why; they hadn’t even done anything worth regular indifference yet! If it was that easy to impress Mando mechanics, they were going to think he was as wizard as a krayt dragon by the end of the day.

Anakin scrambled down, closely followed by 2460.

By the time lunch rolled around, Anakin felt like all of the ships were in working order for the battle tomorrow, and he was so hungry he could eat a whole bantha. Even the concern from the mechanics that he might choke could barely slow him down from scarfing his rations.

Once he was done with his meal, he waited for Obi-Wan to show up, kicking his feet back and forth and chatting happily with 2460 and the people around him. He told them about the Boonta Eve race, and they were all suitably impressed.

Ahsoka showed up after a bit, and sat down with them. Obi-Wan hadn’t shown up yet, but neither had Rex or Cody. Ahsoka didn’t seem to be paying much attention to their conversation; she had that same thoughtful-worried attitude that Obi-Wan had had at breakfast. It was weird how  _ alike _ they looked when they were doing it, staring through their food as they picked at it, only to suddenly tune back into the conversation and make polite expressions at whoever was talking to them before getting distracted again. Anakin wondered if that was a Jedi thing too.

Eventually, the mechanics and engineers had to leave. Anakin waved goodbye.

Rex showed up, looking tired. “Cody won’t be here,” he said. “He took lunch early in his office.”

“Where’s Obi-Wan?” Anakin asked.

Rex shrugged. “Probably with Cody,” he said. “Possibly attending to his other duties.”

Anakin couldn’t imagine what would be so important on this ship that someone would skip a possible meal for it. But Rex did say that Cody ate lunch early, maybe Obi-Wan did the same.

He was disappointed, though, that Obi-Wan didn’t come.

Waxer and Boil showed up for lunch during the last part of it, and sat down with them. Anakin was still waiting there with Ahsoka and Rex, just in case Obi-Wan showed up.

Eventually, Ahsoka and Rex left to do officer stuff, leaving Anakin in the care of Waxer and Boil. Then lunch ended, and Waxer had to do stuff as well, so Anakin ended up with Boil.

Boil did not exactly seem pleased with this. To be fair, Anakin was also not exactly pleased with this. Still, Anakin was acquainted with Boil, so at least he wasn’t alone with a total stranger.

“You wanna go back to your room, verd’ika?” Boil asked.

Anakin furrowed his brow, not quite understanding the whole sentence. Ugh, why did Basic have so many words to learn still? He’d heard this one all day, but he still had no idea what it meant.

“What was the last thing you said?”

“Verd’ika?”

Anakin nodded.

“It means ‘little soldier.’ It’s an affectionate term for cadets like you.”

Anakin slowly repeated the word under his breath, committing it to memory.

“How come does nobody call me by my name here?” Anakin asked.

“It’s against regulation,” Boil said. “For your rank, the proper address is ‘General Skywalker.’”

“But nobody calls me that either!” Anakin said. “Fixit calls me ‘Cadet General,’ Padawan Tano calls me ‘Skyguy,’ you call me ‘verd’ika,’ and everyone else calls me cadet.”

“I suppose we’re all struggling a bit to adjust,” Boil said. “I know cadets who were decanted bigger than you. Hard to call you General Skywalker when you’re just a little kid.”

Anakin pouted. “I’m not  _ that _ little,” he said.

“You’re pretty little compared to how big you’re going to get. S’not a bad thing, just something everyone has to adjust to.”

Anakin wrinkled his nose at that. They  _ could _ just call him by his  _ name _ . He had a perfectly good one to use.

They finally got back to Anakin and Ahsoka’s rooms, and Anakin typed in the passcode. “If you have stuff to do, you can go,” Anakin said, mimicking what Ahsoka had said yesterday. “I promise I’ll stay in the rooms.”

“I’ve heard that line before,” Boil said dryly, making his way to the couch, “and I’ve got nothing in particular to do. I’m not an officer, so most of my job between battles is PT and waiting around.”

“What’s...peth-trill?” Anakin asked.

“PT? Physical training. Keeps us in shape to outrun the tinnies.”

“Tinnies?”

“Seppie droids.”

Every single time Boil tried to clarify, it was with words he didn’t know. Anakin balled up his fists in frustration, but decided he didn’t need to know what ‘Seppie’ meant. He didn’t want Boil to think he was stupid. Bad enough that people never took him seriously because he was a kid and a slave, but if you showed any signs of being stupid you got dismissed completely and no one  _ ever _ cared what you had to say. Anakin had to be  _ good _ to be listened to; no, Anakin had to be the  _ best  _ to be listened to. He’d done well enough in the hangar today—at least he thought so—but that didn’t mean he could slip up in front of anyone else.

“You okay, verd’ika?” Boil asked.

Anakin nodded. “I’m fine,” he said.

Boil didn’t look like he believed him. Still, he didn’t press. “You wanna watch a holovid?” he asked instead.

Anakin wasn’t sure what a holovid was, but he assumed it was something to do with holoprojectors. “Sure,” he said.

Boil pulled out a small datapad. “I’ve mostly got ridiculous propaganda films or cheesy romcoms that Waxer likes, what are you in the mood for?”

“Whatever you want,” Anakin said.

“Mm,” Boil said. “Let’s do a romcom, we’ll see enough battle scenes in the coming days that we don’t need to start prematurely. What do you think... _ The Jedi and the Senator? _ Or  _ Twelve Taungsdays? _ ”

“ _ The Jedi and the Senator _ ,” Anakin decided.

“Good choice,” Boil said. “Why don’t you change into a clean set of clothes and then we’ll watch it.”

Anakin did as he was bid. Someone had moved the cadet uniforms to his bed, so he changed into one of them instead of Ahsoka’s extra tunics. They were a little big on him, but not nearly as much as Ahsoka’s tunics were.

When he returned to the living room, Boil patted the spot next to him. “Hop up.”

Anakin sat where he indicated, being careful to respect Boil’s space and not touch him. Boil started the holovid and propped it up on the table in front of them. Then, he leaned back, stretching his arm across the back of the couch and getting comfortable.

Anakin leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, keeping half an eye on the holo and half on Boil, and watched as the opening credits started rolling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 7di'kut: idiotback


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rex and Ahsoka are making plans, no one's seen Obi-Wan all day, and Boil's still on babysitting duty.

“Rex?” Ahsoka asked. 

Rex looked up from the reports he’d been analyzing since they’d come back from lunch. Ahsoka was upset about something, he could see it in her wilted posture and the way she was looking straight through her reports rather than at them.

“Yes, Little’un?”

Ahsoka sighed. In a small voice, tight with emotion, she asked, “Am I doing something wrong, Rex?”

“...No?” he said, not exactly sure what Ahsoka was talking about.

“It’s just…” Ahsoka trailed off, then shook her head. “Never mind, it’s stupid.”

“Now, Commander, we can’t solve a problem if we refuse to acknowledge it exists,” Rex reminded her. He knew she knew that. He’d seen her write it in her little book of quotes that she pulled out every so often that was half important things he wanted her to know and half really stupid things he’d said that he’d prefer she would forget about.

Ahsoka sighed. “It’s just...Skyguy seemed really happy and comfortable around Dimple and the new mechanics shiny—which is good! I support that, I want him to remake all of his friends and feel safe on the ship—but...I’m just...upset, I guess, because little him has only known them for a few hours and made friends and I’ve tried all yesterday and he can barely even look at me!”

“Ah,” Rex said, understanding. This was going to be one of _those_ conversations. “You can’t force him to like you, you know.”

“It worked the first time!” Ahsoka said irritably.

“...Sir?”

“I had to prove myself for him to like me when I first became his padawan,” Ahsoka clarified. 

That wasn’t really the way Rex remembered it, but he’d let her say her part.

“So, logically, I just have to do the same thing again, right?”

 _Ah_.

His poor kid.

“I—hmm,” Rex said. 

This was a delicate conversation. She looked at him with a sort of desperate hope, clearly wanting him to say yes, but…

“I don’t know, Little’un,” Rex said gently, watching her face fall. “General Skywalker was willing to reach out to you the first time and form a partnership. If he’s not amenable to that as a cadet, you might not be able to use the same tactics.”

“Then what _do_ I do?” Ahsoka asked. 

She sounded so heartbroken that Rex couldn’t help but pull her into as much of a hug as he could manage in these chairs. She clung back, grabbing him tightly and burying her face into his shoulder. His poor damn kid. She was already shouldering so much, she didn’t deserve to have this situation dropped on top of it.

“Don’t give up,” Rex said softly. “Move slowly, assess your target, and test the waters until you find something that works.”

“But what if I don’t find _anything?_ ” Ahsoka mumbled into his blacks.

“You will,” Rex said, giving her a confident squeeze. “If nothing else, you can try making friends with young General Kenobi. Anyone that he likes, General Skywalker will probably like too, considering how he sticks to Kenobi like a burr on a bantha.”

Ahsoka didn’t respond to that, instead choosing to cling and take a few deep breaths. That was fine. The poor kid clearly needed a hug. Rex couldn’t help with the Force, or with Sith artifacts, or with navigating the dynamics of family relationships when your two parental figures magically get turned into peers, but he could give a pretty good hug.

Finally, she pulled back. “Thanks Rex,” she said, with a shaky huff.

He gave a nod. “Anytime, Little’un.”

Then, because there was a war on and somebody had to take care of it, they slowly turned back to their planning.

Scuttlebutt said that nobody had seen Obi-Wan all day. It was nothing worrisome, per se, as everyone had been busy, but it was still out of character for the general. Usually, everyone but the medics saw Obi-Wan every single day. So, when Anakin was handed off to Boil, Waxer decided to find Obi-Wan and make sure he was alright.

Obi-Wan was, for once, actually in the first place Waxer looked. All he’d had to do was knock on Obi-Wan’s door, and there he was, looking mildly confused. Waxer glanced around, trying to figure out what Obi-Wan might have been doing all day. The only clues were the turned-off datapad on the desk and the desk chair still spinning slightly. Waxer hoped that meant he’d spent the morning reading the regs to catch up with everyone else.

“Hello Lieutenant,” Obi-Wan said. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“We missed you at lunch, sir,” Waxer said. “I just came by to check on you.”

Obi-Wan leaned back into his room to check the chrono. “My apologies,” Obi-Wan said. “It seems I lost track of time.”

“Not to worry, sir,” Waxer said, tossing a ration bar at him. “We’re used to this sort of behavior.”

“From my padawan, I’m sure,” Obi-Wan joked, setting the ration bar on his desk. “Would you like some tea?”

He didn’t even wait for an answer before grabbing two cups from the cupboard and heading to the sink to get some water for the self-heating kettle. Waxer shrugged and stepped inside the room. The door slid shut behind him, and he leaned on it.

“Actually, it’s usually your padawan making sure to drag you to lunch,” Waxer said.

“You know him well, then?” Obi-Wan asked, ignoring the mock as he filled the kettle.

Waxer gave him a funny look. “Sir, it’s Skywalker.”

Obi-Wan froze. Then, carefully, he turned off the water, set the kettle on the counter, and said, “I suppose I took him in when Qui-Gon died?”

“As far as I know, sir, you’re the only Jedi Master he ever had.”

It felt like a rug had been pulled out from under Obi-Wan’s feet as the pieces suddenly clicked into horrifying places. If Obi-Wan had a broken Padawan bond, and Obi-Wan was Anakin’s only master, and Qui-Gon had died ten years ago, and Anakin was only barely a knight…

Qui-Gon had died while Obi-Wan was still a Padawan.

Sithspit, it was extremely probable that it was Obi-Wan’s fault. After all, Padawans were supposed to watch their Master’s back. And at his age? Nothing should be getting through him. If Qui-Gon had been killed—and he had to have been killed, Qui-Gon was in great health, and snapped Force Bonds didn’t tend to happen when you knew you were dying—it was because Obi-Wan had made a critical error. He’d been too slow, or too clumsy, or too stupid, or—

“General? Are you okay?”

Waxer’s voice snapped him out of his spiraling thoughts. Obi-Wan took a shaky breath. The past was gone now; there was nothing he could do to change it. He needed to keep his mind in the present. Focus on the here and now, as Qui-Gon always told him.

He pressed the button to start the kettle boiling. “I’m alright, Lieutenant,” he said.

“ _Sir._ ” Waxer said, clearly not believing him.

“I’m just...surprised, I suppose,” Obi-Wan said, turning to face Waxer. “Anakin is very strong in the Force, and he’s coming to the Temple older than most. I would have thought it wiser to let a more experienced Master take him on. Master Koon, I think, would have been my first guess, if I’d thought about anyone besides Master Jinn.”

“He likes you,” Waxer said.

Obi-Wan grimaced at that statement, disconcerted. “Yeah,” he said. “It’s weird. We met like two days ago, I didn’t expect him to warm up to me so fast.”

“Sir?”

“Qui-Gon...tends to bring things home on trips. Typically what they have in common is that they’re angry, frightened, and they _don’t like me_ . Most of them aren’t as bad as the injured baby rancor, but they’re almost never what you’d call _friendly.”_

There was something odd in Obi-Wan’s voice, something that Waxer had never heard from the general but recognized as the same tone that often accompanied shinies after the first battle where they lost a batchmate. It was distant, tight, and nostalgic in a desperate way. 

Kindly, Waxer said, “Sir, your Master sounds like a real trip.”

“I think I can count on one hand the number of times a mission didn’t involve Qui-Gon trying to adopt something half-feral.” Obi-Wan said wryly.

“The mission where he got you was clearly not one of them,” Waxer deadpanned.

That startled a surprised laugh out of Obi-Wan. It took on a slightly hysterical note before Obi-Wan managed to get himself back under control.

“I have to say, Lieutenant, that ‘half-feral’ is not a descriptor often applied to _me_ ,” he finally said. “Usually that’s Qui-Gon’s descriptor, and I get called the polite, rational one.”

Waxer snorted. “That’s the reaction when you’re around Skywalker too, but the 212th knows better, sir.”

“Surely I’m not _that_ bad,” Obi-Wan said with a grin. Waxer politely ignored the slight wobble in his voice.

“All due respect, sir, you absolutely are.”

As another laugh surprised itself out of the General, Waxer knew he was doing something good. It wouldn’t cure the grief—nothing did, really—but it helped, learning to focus on the good times rather than the pain of the loss. As the kettle started shrieking and Obi-Wan turned back to it, Waxer settled in, readying himself to catch the General if he fell apart.

Boil had been right; the romcom _was_ cheesy. Anakin couldn’t imagine _anyone_ acting like that, not even Core-Worlders. Still, he liked it! He’d been laughing through the whole thing, despite occasionally having difficulty understanding and following along.

He had a question for Boil afterward though. “Is it _really_ forbidden for Jedi to fall in love?” he asked.

“Well...that’s a question you really should ask General Kenobi,” Boil said. “The way Waxer said Cody said the General explained, most Jedi tend to end up in more...friends-with-benefits sorts of situations, because while _love_ isn’t forbidden, per se, _attachment_ is, and it’s sometimes extremely difficult to keep the two separate.”

“What’s the difference, then?”

Boil shrugged. “I don’t know, we clones don’t have to worry about that stuff. That’s a question for the General.”

“Oh,” Anakin said.

“Anyway, I think it’s about time for a nap,” Boil said.

“A _nap?”_ Anakin squawked. He was _nine_ , he didn’t need _naps_.

“Yeah,” Boil said. “Naps are very important for children; aids in their growth and memory retention. You can either sleep in your bunk or we can build a pillow fort.”

“What’s a pillow fort?” Anakin asked.

“It’s a little tent-house sort of thing that you build out of blankets and pillows and furniture. The 501st introduced us to it; apparently, Commander Tano used to build them a lot as a Jedi Initiate.”

“Let’s do that,” Anakin said. At least it would delay having to take a nap. And he needed to start learning Jedi things. Qui-Gon said that most Jedi were younger than three when they got taken to Coruscant; that meant he had _six years_ of stuff to catch up on already!

“Go round up some blankets, then.”

There were lots of blankets in Anakin’s room. Personally, he thought it was a good thing, because it was really cold in space. It didn’t bother him so much when he was moving and working, but whenever he sat still for very long he started shivering. The cold kept waking him up in the medbay, and the silver thermafoil sheet he’d had didn’t help much. He grabbed all the blankets and the one pillow and brought them out to the living room.

“Now what?” Anakin asked.

“Well, there’s not a whole lot of rearranging we can do in here, so I think we’ll just flip the table on its side and stretch a few blankets between that and the couch for the ceiling and then make a nest of the rest of the blankets on the floor. Sound good?”

Anakin nodded. They had to unbolt the table from the floor—everything was bolted down, just in case the artificial gravity failed—but soon enough they had flipped the table. Boil worked on the ceiling of the fort. Anakin worked on the blanket nest. 

It was warm and cozy when it was finished. Anakin was delighted.

“Alright, cadet, time for a nap.”

“Are _you_ gonna take a nap?” Anakin asked. He was already bundled up in the nest, but that didn’t mean he wanted to take a nap.

“Nah,” Boil said. Only his head was poked into the pillow fort. “Someone’s gotta stand guard, and that’s me.”

“I can stand guard if you want to sleep.”

“I appreciate the offer but I’ll have to turn you down,” Boil said good-naturedly. “I’m just a trooper; that means that unlike officers, I actually get a decent amount of sleep. _You_ , though, you’re an officer, and I _know_ you’re just as bad as General Kenobi when it comes to getting sleep. And I very much doubt you got a lot of sleep in the medbay.”

Anakin pouted, but Boil was right. He didn’t get much sleep in the medbay. So, with a huff, he rearranged himself so he was comfortable and warm. He wasn’t sure if he _could_ take a nap while Boil was there—a nice stranger so far, but still a stranger, and maybe not a bounty hunter, but someone he still wasn’t sure of the motives that drove him—but he could at least lay down and pretend.

He stayed very quiet and still while Boil sat just outside of the fort and tapped at his datapad. As the heat sunk in around him, he tried to practice the meditation breathing that Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had been teaching him. Slowly, he started to relax.

And finally, he fell asleep.

Boil was glad. He’d handled Numa alright, all things considered, but Waxer was the one who liked kids and knew what to do with them. Boil wasn’t sure why _he_ was on babysitting duty—he’d done well enough at distracting the kid yesterday, but he didn’t really know what to _do_ with a kid, especially a weird Jedi kid. Even if it was Skywalker.

At least he’d liked the movie. It was one of Boil’s favorites—the Jedi and the Senator were _clearly_ aesthetically based on General Kenobi and Senator Organa, but it was so out of character and cheesy that after the first time they’d watched it, Waxer hadn’t been able to look at the General for a week without giggling. Boil still treasured the memory of the look on Waxer’s face when he’d done that one too many times and Cody had threatened him with sanitation duty if he didn’t either quit that or share the joke with the squad. 

And now Anakin was sleeping, and that was the important thing. All Boil had to do now was make sure nothing bad happened to him. That was easy. He was a scout, after all; he’d been decanted with the sole purpose of making sure nothing got past him.

He tapped away at his datapad, and waited for Commander Tano to arrive.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ahsoka and Anakin work on a mousedroid. Things don't go as planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody, it's time for a b-b-b-BONUS CHAPTER! I did more editing this week than anticipated, so it's a two-chapter kinda week.
> 
> And this is where _A Child In A War Zone_ finally catches up to _Padawan At War (Again)_ woot!

When Ahsoka came back to their rooms, she brought dinner with her. This wasn’t the regular shipboard rations, either. She had two foil-wrapped ration bars, some dried muja slices to split, and a small bag of nerf jerky. Rex had given them to her to share with Anakin while they worked on both the mousedroid and their relationship.

Ahsoka and Boil had managed to quietly change places, but Anakin had still woken up. “Boil?” he called out from his little pillow fort.

“Nope, it’s me here now, Skyguy,” Ahsoka said brightly, peeking into the pillow fort.

“Oh. Hi Ahsoka,” Anakin said, burrowing deeper into the blanket nest.

Ahsoka tried not to be disappointed at the flat response. He was probably just not quite awake yet.

“Did you have fun spending time with Boil?” Ahsoka asked.

“Yeah,” Anakin said. “We watched a holovid and built a pillow fort.”

“That’s awesome!” Ahsoka said. “Ready to fix the mousedroid now?”

“Mmm...yeah,” Anakin decided.

“Don’t worry about getting up yet,” Ahsoka said, as Anakin made absolutely no move to get out of the blanket nest. “I’ll bring the droid parts into the pillow fort.”

She’d put all the parts on a blanket and had tied it up into a bag last night, so it was easy to bring them all into the pillow fort. They’d diagnosed the problem last night—faulty wire—but they’d decided to tear the whole thing apart and reassemble it anyway, just for fun.

Ahsoka bopped Anakin’s shoulder gently with a ration bar. He slowly took it from her, and finally half-slithered out of the blanket nest while Ahsoka laid out the rest of the food as well as the parts and tools for the mousedroid. He still kept one blanket over his head and shoulders, though. Ahsoka noticed that it was the patchy one; older Anakin’s favorite.

Some things never change.

They ate first, and then started working on the droid in silence. They each had a hydrospanner, and even though Anakin was just a little kid now, it was easy to fall into her usual rhythm around him. He was so much different as a kid than as an adult, and yet this...this was hauntingly familiar.

“How was working with the mechanics?” Ahsoka asked.

Anakin grinned down at the wheel he was reattaching to the chassis. “It was great!” he said. “Dimple’s real easy to impress, and he’s super nice too! He didn’t yell at me  _ once! _ ”

Ahsoka frowned. “Does...does Obi-Wan yell at you?”

Yelling wasn’t a proper method of discipline. Everyone was taught that at the Temple. It didn’t teach a student why they were wrong, and it didn’t offer an opportunity for them to understand their mistake. It just frightened them, and to discipline with fear was not in the spirit of the Code.

Anakin looked up at her in disbelief. “Of course not!” he said. “Obi-Wan’s a  _ Jedi _ ; I don’t think he knows  _ how _ to yell.”

“Then who’s yelling at you?” Ahsoka asked.

“ _ Nobody’s  _ yelling at me,” Anakin said with a huff. “I just said they  _ didn’t  _ yell.”

“That’s not—I mean—okay,” Ahsoka said. “So mechanics was fun?”

“Yeah, I got to teach 2460 a whole bunch of stuff! And he listened! I didn’t think he would, cuz nobody listens to me except Kitster and especially not when they’re grownups.”

Anakin rambled on about all the ships he fixed that morning while the two of them put the mousedroid back together. Ahsoka listened gladly; it was almost like things were back to normal.

“It’s nice to see that you  _ can _ still be a motormouth when you want to,” Ahsoka quipped after Anakin paused to breathe.

He flinched at that. _Kriff_ . Another misstep.

“I meant that in a good way, really!” Ahsoka said, trying to fix the damage.

Before either of them could say anything more, Ahsoka’s comm chirped. She checked the code. It was Hardcase.

“I gotta take this, Skyguy, sorry,” Ahsoka said. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

She slipped into her room. “Tano,” she said, answering it.

“Hey Commander, I have that report you wanted.”

“Alright, give it to me.”

Ahsoka listened carefully as Hardcase outlined the Weapons Report, giving her his opinion on what their deficiencies were and how they should best make up for it. Of course, it was a relatively generalized report, considering that they still didn’t exactly know what they were going to be doing on the ground, but she appreciated it nonetheless.

“Thanks Hardcase,” she said when he’d finished his report.

“No problem, Commander. How’s it going with the cadet General?”

Ahsoka sighed. “I don’t know. I think we’re making progress though.”

“That’s great! Don’t worry Commander, the General adores you. You’ll be back to an inseparable duo in no time!”

“I hope so,” Ahsoka said. “Tano out.”

She took a deep breath. Conversational missteps were easy to fix. She just had to keep talking, and eventually she’d make her point clear.

“I’m back, Skyguy!” she said cheerfully, entering the living room.

There was no response. 

She ducked into the pillow fort. “Skyguy?” she asked. 

He was gone, and so was the mousedroid. She backed out of the pillow fort, and checked the ‘fresher and Anakin’s room. He wasn’t there, either.

Kriffing  _ sithspit _ .

Running away  _ probably _ wasn’t the best idea. But Anakin just didn’t know what to  _ do _ , and he thought Obi-Wan might be able to help him. He just kept kriffing up with Ahsoka, and he didn’t understand  _ why _ . And sure, Ahsoka said she’d meant it in a good way when she called him a motormouth, but Anakin wasn’t  _ stupid _ . He knew a  _ lot _ of Basic; he knew enough to know that ‘motormouth’ was something you called someone when you wanted them to shut up.

After a few turns, Anakin realized he was lost already. He  _ thought _ he knew the way to Obi-Wan’s room, it was only a few hallways away from his own, but all the hallways were so kriffing _similar_.

He was starting to get a bit panicky when he heard a familiar whistle in greeting.

“R2-D2!” Anakin called back, brightening immediately. “Boy, am I glad you’re here.”

R2 chirped at him, asking what he was doing.

“I’m looking for Obi-Wan’s room,” Anakin said. “I can’t navigate these stupid hallways.”

R2 beeped that Ahsoka knew the way to Obi-Wan’s room and he could have just asked her to take him there.

“Ahsoka doesn’t like me,” Anakin muttered, unable to look the droid in its optical sensor. “I don’t want to give her more reasons to think I’m annoying.”

R2 made a disappointed whine at that, but puttered off down the hallway. Anakin followed it. The droid led him down two more hallways and stopped at a door just like any of the others.

Anakin thanked R2. The droid rudely told him that Ahsoka wasn’t any harder to make friends with than Padmé and that he needed to promise to try harder because both of them clearly had faulty communication circuits which was  _ always  _ a problem with organics (except Padmé, who was notably the only organic that R2 had ever met who not only had perfect communication circuits, but upgraded ones, since not only could she tell people exactly what she thought of them, but they took her honesty as a compliment. Her decision-making programming might be on the fritz  _ constantly _ but her communication circuits were excellent), but it was a problem that could be overcome, allegedly, and since both he and Ahsoka clearly desired to be friends it couldn’t be  _ that _ difficult.

Anakin promised that he  _ would _ try, and with that promise extracted, R2 quietly beeped about how faulty, stubborn organics made his fans kick into overdrive and zipped off, leaving Anakin alone in the hallway.

Anakin had already memorized the code to Obi-Wan’s quarters after seeing him put it in just once. He didn’t know if Obi-Wan was here, hadn’t seen him all day, but he hoped Obi-Wan wouldn’t mind if he spent some time in here, where he wasn’t bothering Ahsoka.

The door slid open, and Anakin saw Obi-Wan at the desk, sitting in what had to be an incredibly uncomfortable position, looking irritated at a datapad.

“Are you busy, Obi-Wan?” Anakin asked.

“Incredibly,” Obi-Wan said shortly.

“Oh,” Anakin said. “Okay.”

He was mad, but not at Anakin, so Anakin thought it would be safe to stay here as long as he stayed out of Obi-Wan’s way. Anakin sat down in the hallway, just outside of the door, and started working on the mousedroid again. He could feel Obi-Wan staring at him for several moments, but more out of confusion than irritation, so Anakin stayed put, talking at the droid in Binary while he fixed it so that it would know that he was trying to help it and not hurt it.

Obi-Wan slowly went back to his reading. It took a while, but eventually he started to relax, too. Anakin was glad, something was clearly bothering Obi-Wan, but like most adults, he didn’t want to talk about it to Anakin.

They sat for quite a while together, long enough that Anakin finished putting the droid back together and started tweaking its settings for optimum efficiency.

Obi-Wan yawned and glanced at the chrono. Immediately, he started to tense up again. 

Anakin jumped in with a distraction.

“I had a dream where Master Yoda was riding a womp rat,” Anakin said, not looking up.

“That so?” Obi-Wan asked, sounding confused.

“You were there too,” Anakin said.

“Really,” Obi-Wan said.

Anakin realized that Obi-Wan probably had no idea why Anakin would have had a dream in the middle of the day.

“Boil made me take a nap earlier,” Anakin explained, making a face. “I’m  _ nine _ . ”

“Commander Cody said that Boil was the resident child expert,” Obi-Wan said neutrally. “I’m sure your nap was for the best.”

“Well I think it’s poodoo,” Anakin said. He was  _ nine! _ He hadn’t had to take naps since he was six, and if Boil didn’t know that that was when children stopped taking naps, he questioned the ‘expertise’ that he was supposed to have.

“Hmm,” Obi-Wan said. “Speaking of naps, it’s past curfew for you, youngling.”

“Aww, but I’m not tired!” Anakin said. “I already had a nap!”

“No arguing,” Obi-Wan said. The tone was gentle, but Anakin knew an order when he heard one, and shut up immediately. “Do you want me to walk you back to yours and Ahsoka’s quarters?”

“Can I stay here?” Anakin asked. “I think Ahsoka thinks I’m annoying.”

Obi-Wan sighed, and Anakin braced for a ‘no’. 

“Sure, Anakin,” Obi-Wan said, surprising him. “My bed’s in there, you can sleep in it for tonight.”

Anakin finally scooted into the room, and the door closed behind him.

“Where are  _ you  _ going to sleep?” Anakin asked. He’d be fine sharing the bed with Obi-Wan, it was much colder on the ship than it ever was on Tatooine, but he knew that free offworlders tended to have a much bigger need for personal space than he did. Obi-Wan hadn’t yet scolded him for invading that personal space, but Anakin didn’t know how far he could push it.

“I’ve got studying to do,” Obi-Wan said. “I doubt I’ll be getting much sleep.”

Well.

That was the stupidest thing that Obi-Wan had decided yet, and he had missed a possible  _ meal _ .

“But you’ve got a battle tomorrow!” Anakin protested. “You need to rest so you can be alert or you’ll  _ die!” _

“I’ll be fine,” Obi-Wan said, in the tone that adults used when they wanted to lie about something to make you stop worrying. “With meditation and the Force, it’ll be like I slept the whole night.”

Anakin tried a different tactic. “But Qui-Gon said—”

“Well, Qui-Gon’s not here!” Obi-Wan snapped. 

Anakin shrunk back immediately. Too far, he’d stepped out of bounds. Obi-Wan was a bright star of negative emotion right now, which was the  _ opposite  _ of what Anakin had wanted. He tried to decipher it, and decided that Obi-Wan was feeling very angry-sad. Like usual, even when Anakin had provoked the emotion, Obi-Wan didn’t seem to be feeling it  _ at him _ , which was utterly confusing.

Obi-Wan took a deep breath, and the emotions seemed to slowly radiate away like heat waves off of sand until his angry-sad was more like a red dwarf than a blue main sequence. Anakin wondered if doing that was good for Obi-Wan. 

“My apologies,” Obi-Wan said gently. “There was no reason for me to snap at you like that. I won’t do it again.”

After a hesitation, Anakin nodded an acceptance. He still thought it was kriffing weird that an adult would apologize to him.

There was awkward silence for a few moments while Anakin tried to put together what he wanted to say to Obi-Wan. He was clearly very angry-sad that Qui-Gon was dead. Anakin was, too, but Qui-Gon was basically Obi-Wan’s dad! Obi-Wan was upset about Qui-Gon in the way that Anakin  _ should _ be about his mom. And Obi-Wan probably had no idea how to deal with it—he was a Core-Worlder, he’d probably never known anybody who’d died before! 

Maybe it was good that Anakin hadn’t quite accepted that his mom and Qui-Gon were dead yet. If he was as upset as Obi-Wan was right now, he wouldn’t be able to help him, and  _ then _ where would they be?

Anakin tried to think of what his mom had told him about when people die. He remembered a time that he’d gotten into a fight with another kid after his older brother had died and when Anakin tried to offer condolences he’d gotten a punch in the face for it. Slowly, Anakin said, “My mom said that sometimes people lash out when they’re grieving. That you have to be patient with them, because they have too much hurt in their heart and it tries to get out any way it can.”

“Your mother is a wise woman,” Obi-Wan said, distantly.

Anakin nodded, though he wasn’t sure Obi-Wan was getting the point that he was trying to make. “I miss Qui-Gon a lot, but you miss him a whole lot more,” he said. “It’s okay to be sad about it.”

“I’m not sad,” Obi-Wan denied. “Qui-Gon has become one with the Force. That isn’t something to—to be sad about.”

Anakin frowned at Obi-Wan. He was very obviously sad about it, but didn’t think he was allowed to be. Anakin had already crossed the line once tonight. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to continue talking about this without doing it again, and he didn’t want to press his luck.

“Okay,” he said. “Good night, Obi-Wan.” 

He closed and picked up the mousedroid, and headed into Obi-Wan’s room. The door automatically shut behind him. Hopefully, Obi-Wan would at least think about what he’d said a little.

He heard Obi-Wan sigh from the other side of the door, and after a moment he heard him moving things around on the other side of the little apartment. Anakin climbed up on the bed. It was much less soft than his own, which he thought was good, because it seemed far less likely that he’d fall through it at any moment.

Anakin reached down and flipped the switch on the mousedroid. It became alert and chirped questioningly. Good. It seemed like Anakin had put everything together correctly then.

“Whistle if anything comes into the room, please?” he asked it.

The droid beeped an affirmative, and scuttled under the bed. Anakin pulled Obi-Wan’s blankets over him. He felt uncomfortable, like he was about to miss something important. There was unhappiness roiling in the air around him, and he wasn’t sure if it was Obi-Wan or the Force causing it.

Anakin didn’t know how to fix it. He hoped that it felt better by tomorrow.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to go to war.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey jsyk if anyone missed it, there was a bonus update on Wednesday! Just didn't want anyone confused by missing a chapter.

When Cody walked into the room they’d intended to plan in, he wasn’t sure what to expect. Typically, it was the Generals making the plans while he, Rex, and Ahsoka pointed out flaws and alternates until they hashed out the best way to go about things. As it stood, Kenobi was a civilian, Skywalker was a child and also a civilian, and Rex and Ahsoka had decided to split up the planning. They’d decided that Gregor had command of the space front, Cody would help him with that, and Ahsoka and Rex were to come up with a plan for the planetside action.

He and Gregor had already come up with their plan of defense and had been relaying orders to make preparations since the earliest hours. Cody had also made a few plans to discuss for planetside action; no doubt Rex and Ahsoka also had a few plans to discuss. They were getting Kenobi’s input because they had to—the Council had left him in charge, even in his current state. They didn’t expect him to have anything much to contribute, though, since he now probably lacked any experience with warfare.

Obi-Wan was already there, fidgeting with the holoprojector. He’d managed to bring up a holo of the city, but it looked like he was trying to figure out how to zoom in and out on different areas. 

Obi-Wan flinched as he noticed Cody watching him. Flushing pink, he said, “Hello Commander.”

“It’s a pinching motion to zoom, sir,” Cody said kindly. “And you need to do it directly above whatever you’re trying to zoom in on.”

“Thank you,” Obi-Wan said. “I, ah, don’t have much experience with this.”

“We don’t expect you to, sir,” Cody said.

The silence was awkward. Cody was used to silent company with his general, but rather than the comforting support of each other, this seemed to be a wariness, a nervousness. He didn’t like it.

Ahsoka and Rex came in together. Ahsoka looked tired already. Cody doubted that she’d gotten any sleep.

“Hi Master Obi-Wan,” Ahsoka said with a yawn.

Obi-Wan pressed his lips together but didn’t bother to correct her this time. “Good morning, Padawan Tano,” he said instead.

“You can call me Ahsoka, you know,” she said. “I’m your Grandpadawan, you don’t need to be so formal.”

“Good morning, Ahsoka,” Obi-Wan corrected. 

“Is Skyguy still in your room?” Ahsoka asked. “Artooie said that’s where he went last night.”

“Anakin? Yes,” Obi-Wan said. “He was sleeping when I left; I didn’t want to disturb him.”

Ahsoka nodded almost to herself at that, but didn’t say anything.

There was another awkward moment of silence, then Obi-Wan started the meeting.

“Right, well, I’ve made a plan, uh, a few plans actually, and I’d like to run them by you all to see what you think,” Obi-Wan said. 

Not the most confident starter, but Cody would take it. He had faith that Ahsoka and Rex had plans too.

Ahsoka made a gesture for Obi-Wan to continue. Nervously, he began.

“Alright, so, I’m thinking that a two-pronged attack with Torrent and the 212th would be the most logical course of action,” Obi-Wan said. “From what I’ve experienced with these droids and from what you’ve told me, they have difficulty processing enemies that aren’t directly in front of them. I believe that if we make an attack on two or even three fronts, we’ll be able to pin them in the middle and give ourselves the best chance at success. I think that we should have Torrent attack from here, while the 212th ground forces make a simultaneous attack here and 212th sky forces provide covering fire. If we have our main forces appear to be here and here, build up some barricades or something, we could even probably convince the droids to funnel themselves into these two streets, and attack up and down their columns from side streets, though that might make those troopers vulnerable to being cut off from the rest, so I’m not sure if we want to do that or not.”

Cody tried very hard to keep the surprise off his face. It was a  _ logical _ plan, if a little too underdone. Where had Obi-Wan learned battle strategy? Waxer had said that Obi-Wan spent most of yesterday studying the regs, but even the best of troopers couldn’t complete their training overnight. He glanced over at Rex, who seemed just as shocked as he was. Okay. He wasn’t overreacting. 

Ahsoka looked positively  _ relieved _ , and immediately fell into her typical role as sith’s advocate. “Well, you’ve got a good  _ start _ to a plan,” she said.

Cody had expected him to bristle at that. Skywalker would have. Instead, surprisingly, Obi-Wan seemed to  _ relax _ .

“Please, I welcome your input,” Obi-Wan said, gesturing to the map.

Cody watched as the two of them debated back and forth, the plan fleshing out with every comment. Both of them respected, yet doubted, the other’s ideas, and often both looked to Rex to moderate, to make sure they weren’t being unreasonable, which amused Cody just a little, but it warmed his heart to see that both of them trusted Rex enough to be the voice of reason. 

As the four of them discussed things, Cody’s unease around his General increased, though he did his best to hide that feeling so the two Jedi wouldn’t sense it. It was off-putting, the longer the meeting went on, how Shiny Obi-Wan would look exactly like his older self one moment—calculating and rewriting the plan in his head, plotting the next move, thinking about what Ahsoka or Rex told him—and then in the next moment he would tug on his braid in thought, or look at Rex or Cody for reassurance, and he would look like a complete stranger, another Jedi’s Padawan on a borrowed assignment. It kept throwing Cody off-balance, which was the last thing he needed before a war.

Finally, he just decided to stop looking over at Obi-Wan, and focus on Rex. His instinct was to be attentive to his General first and foremost, to anticipate his thoughts and needs, especially as the second-in-command, but the uncanniness of Obi-Wan was distracting him, and he needed to focus, to compartmentalize, or he was going to get people killed.

They went through several more plans, debating, combining, and tweaking as they went. It wasn’t the same rhythm that they usually fell into, but it  _ was  _ a rhythm all the same. Obi-Wan was unrefined, and he didn’t have a hold of all the threads that he would manage to tie easily at his real age, but—

—he seemed less shiny than he should be.

Still, now wasn’t the time to look a gift bantha in the mouth. If Obi-Wan was a surprising natural at strategy, well, that was only good for them. Cody could figure out the whys and hows when they weren’t preparing for invasion.

At last, they came to a conclusive decision and put the finishing touches on their final plan. Once the four of them agreed on it, they split up to relay orders.

It was time to go to war.

When Anakin woke up, he was awake instantly. Something was wrong.

He tried to pinpoint what it was. And then he knew. Obi-Wan wasn’t on the ship.

In fact, there were a  _ lot  _ of people who weren’t on the ship. 

Anakin bolted out of Obi-Wan’s room, sliding through hallways. They were all frighteningly empty. He ran at random, trying to figure out where everyone went. This ship had more people than Mos Espa, had so many people that it gave Anakin a headache when he wasn’t near Obi-Wan or Ahsoka. Now, though, there were hardly any people.

Anakin had never been so upset to  _ not _ have a headache.

He sprinted to the hangar he’d been in yesterday, and at that point, he finally found some people.

“Whoa, hey cadet!” Dimple said, catching him from behind and swinging him up into his arms. “What are you  _ doing  _ down here?”

Anakin resisted the urge to squirm away. “Where is everyone?” he demanded. “Where’s Obi-Wan?”

“Kid, we’re in the middle of a  _ battle  _ right now,” Dimple said. “Everyone’s either planetside or in a fighter to protect this ship. And  _ you _ need to not be down here. It’s too dangerous.”

“But—”

“No buts. I’m taking you to the bridge.”

Anakin was carried up to the bridge. He didn’t want to be on the bridge, but Dimple had clearly handled all sorts of childish behavior before, because none of Anakin’s attempts to get back down worked.

“Hey,” Dimple said as he entered the bridge. “We’ve got a flight risk that needs supervision.”

“I’ve got him,” said someone else. Anakin was handed over to a Mando wearing armor and helmet. It looked totally different than anyone else’s armor, but it was painted gold, so he must be one of the 212th troops.

Anakin glared at him.

“Now, don’t be like that, cadet,” the Mando said gently. “Cody told me you had orders to stay on the ship during this battle. Now, I can either have one of my guys go with you to your room and you two can stay there, or you can stay up here on the bridge, but we cannot have you in any of the hangars or wandering around. If a part of the ship was to be damaged or invaded, and we didn’t know where you were, you could die before any of us could find and protect you. Understood?”

Anakin nodded begrudgingly. “I’ll stay here,” he mumbled.

“Good,” the clone said. “I’m Captain Gregor. Stick close to me.”

They only lost one ship during the initial invasion. If Cody wasn’t superstitious, he might have thought that it was a good sign. 

But you can’t think that sort of thing in a war. That only invited trouble.

Obi-Wan was nearly as white as the armor that surrounded him, clinging tightly to the hand strap like he didn’t have the Force to catch himself. Cody prayed that Obi-Wan would be able to keep it together on the battlefield. They couldn’t afford having their Jedi freeze up.

But as they landed, and Obi-Wan jumped out, lighting his lightsaber and already starting to block shots from the few sentry droids that were already out, it seemed that Cody needn’t have worried. Obi-Wan was already pushing forward, distracting the sentries and deflecting their bolts back at them while troopers started shooting and unloading supplies and vehicles.

Quickly enough, the sentries were down. Already, though, Cody’s HUD was picking up the distant rumble of enemy tanks. Soon he’d be hearing the  _ chuk-chuk _ of tinnies’ footsteps as well.

They raced to get their artillery unloaded, and hurried to start creating barricades.

Once Cody could differentiate the Seppie droids’ faces, he gave Rex the signal to move forward. Then, he gave the command to start firing.

Torrent’s drop wasn’t the quietest, considering that they were in LAAT/is, but the distraction of Obi-Wan’s opening attack and the speed of the drop meant that those who were left in the compound were dramatically underprepared to face Torrent Company.

That didn’t mean it was easy, though.

Most of the droidekas and B2s had just been deployed outside, but there were still quite a few of them around. Their dramatic drop-in quickly became a scramble for cover as everyone  _ but _ Ahsoka headed for whatever crates and cover they could find. Ahsoka stayed put, drawing attention to herself and her lightsabers. As long as she kept the droids’ attention and kept deflecting blasterfire, it gave her men a chance to get within destruction range with less of a chance of getting hurt.

Once they’d taken out the droids in the landing zone, Ahsoka and Rex split up. The goal was to capture the whole place, and it would be more efficient with two teams. Ahsoka and her men went up. Rex and his went down.

She dashed through hallways, her and her men taking out any droids they came across. Sirens blared around them, informing all droids present that there were intruders. Occasionally the droids got in a lucky shot.

She tried not to let the gut-punch of a death in the Force distract her. She tried not to let how easy that was becoming distract her either.

Finally, she reached the command center. She burst in to confront the local despot of the week. She started to demand a surrender, but he cut her off with orders to kill. The air filled with blasterfire.

She didn’t think. She fought.

“We’re going to charge,” Cody said. His helmet was almost pressed against Obi-Wan’s forehead, proximity the only thing allowing Obi-Wan to hear him over the din of battle. “You ready?”

Obi-Wan looked half scared to death, but he nodded. Cody needed to get him a bucket to hide that fear if this sith curse kept up. That was a problem for later, though.

“Let’s go, boys!” Cody shouted, and they were over the barricades. Obi-Wan was on point, sprinting ahead, deflecting blasterfire like it was the easiest thing in the world. Then, he reached the droids, and Cody suddenly realized where Anakin had learned his flashy lightsaber tricks. Obi-Wan was  _ jumping from droid to droid _ , and  _ doing flips _ , and generally making himself the  _ biggest target _ on the battlefield! If Cody wasn’t actively getting shot at, he might have a thing or two to say to his General. As it was though, he just hoped that Obi-Wan could protect himself and then started proving himself a good investment of Republic credits. He shot, he dodged from cover to cover, and when any droid got too close, he kicked its head off.

Boil’s voice rang out over their in-bucket comms. “Rollies inbound!”

Cody looked up to see the new threat.

Just in time to see the General get shot. He fell with a cry, and Cody sprinted for him. It looked like a shot to the side. At best, it wouldn’t be anything debilitating. At  _ worst _ , there were a lot of internal organs right there. The General might have only a few minutes without medical intervention.

Cody spotted the lightsaber, and leaned down to pick it up without slowing, but it zipped away of its own volition. He looked back to the General, and saw his body pinned underneath a live droideka. Cody’s stomach dropped.

Then he heard a familiar  _ click-buzz-zhwarm-zhwarm-zhwarm _ , and the droideka suddenly split into several red-hot pieces. Obi-Wan didn’t even notice Cody as he immediately went to attack the next one.

Cody turned to the third droideka. Now was no time to be slacking. Wooley was already pulling out droid poppers, so Cody shot at the droideka, drawing its attention away from the other troopers. It barely had time to fire a few shots before the popper popped, and then he, Wooley, and Suture finished it off.

Cody looked back at Obi-Wan, who had just finished destroying the second droid. Their eyes met, and Cody nodded. Together, they pressed forward.

The battle began to blur together, the way it always did. The goal was simple, all they had to do was fight their way to the target. Between them and the endpoint was just a series of point, shoot, duck into cover, and make sure the men following you did the same.

Ahead of them, Obi-Wan did his flashy Jedi stuff. He was usually just big enough of a target to provide the rest of the 212th enough of a distraction to rush to the next available cover.

Cody kept half an eye on the battle ahead and half an eye on his men. A lot of the battle was him darting out of a hiding spot to provide covering fire while Suture or Wooley or Bones dragged an injured brother into cover. Any droids getting close enough to give a kill shot to a fallen brother got their head punched off, or a full tackle, depending on how close Cody was. He wouldn’t let these  _ machines  _ take out any brother he could still save.

Sometimes, that brother was the General.

Another shot hit Obi-Wan square in the chest, and Cody thanked the Force that he was actually  _ wearing  _ armor today. A droid marched up towards Obi-Wan, and Cody gave it a flying tackle. He and it crashed into two more droids. The head of the one he’d tackled popped off upon hitting the ground, but he used his DC to finish off the other two.

He glanced back to see Scuttlebutt yanking the General to his feet, and then pressed forward ahead of them, shooting droids as he raced for cover. They were nearly there; droid waves were practically thinned out over here.

It didn’t take very long at all for them to finish the last wave off. They took a moment to let everyone who was nearby regroup with them, and then they pressed forward towards the fort. Cody prayed that Rex and Torrent had managed to capture it.

As they approached, Cody spotted blue and white plastoid. He breathed a sigh of relief when they waved, and he waved back. Thank the Force.

They took a while longer to secure the area, and then cleanup began. Cody caught Obi-Wan’s shoulder. “Get to the medics,” he said, hoping that for  _ once _ Obi-Wan wouldn’t fight it.

“Okay,” Obi-Wan said with a nod, and then wandered off in the direction of Suture. 

Cody breathed a sigh of relief, and started organizing squads to perform search and rescue operations. Carefully, they made their way back across the battlefield, destroying any droids that still moved and rescuing any troopers who still lit up as live on their HUD screens. After a bit, Cody saw Obi-Wan helping move rubble and troopers under the careful direction of Coric. He must not have been hurt too badly, despite being shot  _ twice _ in the same battle. That was good. That was incredibly  _ lucky _ .

Cody turned back to his own work. They still had a long way to go before they could get off this planet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cody: Get to the medics, you're injured.  
> Obi-Wan, whose ears are ringing because he doesn't wear a helmet: Help the medics with the injured?? Okay!


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anakin may not be on the front lines of this battle, but that doesn't mean he's not affected by it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all, content warning, there is a depiction of a panic attack at the beginning of this chapter. If you would prefer not to read through it, I have provided a short summary and a jump to the next part [here.]

Pain lanced through Anakin’s side, and he gasped, but it was like a ghost pain. He felt it, but...distantly, almost like it wasn’t really his.

Almost like it was...Obi-Wan’s.

Obi-Wan was hurt. Obi-Wan was hurt and he was all the way down on the planet and Anakin was up here in space hiding under Captain Gregor’s command terminal and he  _ couldn’t help _ . Obi-Wan could  _ die _ down there and Anakin couldn’t do anything about it. 

After a moment, Anakin couldn’t feel the ghost pain anymore. It didn’t make him feel better. Was Obi-Wan dying? Did a medic find him? Anakin didn’t know. Anakin couldn’t tell.

He curled up into himself, and silently begged the Force to keep Obi-Wan alive. Obi-Wan was all that he had, he  _ couldn’t  _ die now! Anakin didn’t  _ want  _ him to die!

His eyes burned, and he shut them tight automatically. Water was too precious to waste on tears. But Obi-Wan’s life was more precious than water. Anakin’s breathing grew more ragged as he panicked, terrified that Obi-Wan was dying far below them. Anakin didn’t even get to say  _ goodbye _ to him. The last words they’d had was an  _ argument. _ It wasn’t  _ fair _ .

Anakin didn’t know how long he sat there shaking and begging the Force to protect Obi-Wan, desperately trying to feel out for him again but no longer being able to tell what was  _ Obi-Wan _ and what was the rest of the pure senseless  _ pain  _ and  _ grief  _ that rent the Force like a desert storm through Mos Espa. It buffeted his mind, tearing at him like blowing sand tears at clothing, at skin, at paint. Eventually it was all just too much, and Anakin had to stop searching. It was too overwhelming, and it wasn’t even  _ over _ . He stopped trying to reach out, and curled in instead, trying to block out everything, putting his hands over his ears like it would stop him from hearing the desperate screams of the Force. He trembled as the storm swelled to its peak, agony and death and fear and grief swirling around him until it seemed like the only thing that existed, had ever existed,  _ will _ have ever existed. 

But then, slowly, the storm died down, as all storms do. Anakin managed to collect the scattered grains of himself, and finally curled in enough to exist in his own form again, apart from the Force. He was suddenly aware of how much his throat hurt, like he’d been running hard in the hottest part of the day. Only when he relaxed the hands on his ears did he notice how tightly he’d been clutching at them, and how much his head hurt. When he opened his eyes, he winced, the light momentarily too bright. He still couldn’t sense Obi-Wan. He wasn’t sure he could handle trying again.

Eventually, Anakin sensed that someone was close to him, kneeling on the floor next to the command terminal and gently tapping their fingers on the durasteel to get his attention. He flinched back and looked up. It was Captain Gregor. He was saying words, but the Basic just washed over Anakin without him comprehending any of it. His ears were still ringing with the horrified cries of the Force, and whatever Captain Gregor was saying was practically sand-whisper in comparison.

Gregor was more patient than most people as Anakin struggled to get himself under control. He didn’t get mad or smack him or anything. Instead he took off his helmet and just kept repeating his words softly and calmly, like Anakin was a frightened bantha calf or something. The absurdity of it was what brought Anakin back to the here and now more than anything else.

Finally, the comprehension kicked in, and Basic words started making sense.

“—you’re safe now, the battle’s over, everyone’s on their way back, just take some deep breaths cadet, deeeep breaths, it’ll be okay, you’re safe.”

“Obi-Wan’s  _ hurt _ !” Anakin managed to get out.

That stopped Gregor’s little chant. “Ah,” he said. “Well, if he’s hurt, he’ll be coming in shortly. Medevac’s just started. Do you want to go down and wait for him?”

Anakin nodded. Gregor reached a hand out for him to take. Anakin scrambled out on his own.

Gregor called out to someone else to escort Anakin down to one of the hangars. A firm hand landed on Anakin’s shoulder and guided him out. Anakin barely noticed it, too worried about Obi-Wan.

Anakin was left by some boxes as the firm hand rushed to help the medics. There were several ships, lots of stretchers going by. The ships came in, unloaded, and departed again. Some of the medics didn’t come back after unloading their first set. Suture and Bones always came back, rushing back to the ships before they made their way back to the planet.

Anakin thought about joining them, but was afraid that he’d get down there only to miss Obi-Wan as he was coming up. So he stayed put.

Eventually, the medevacs stopped coming. Bones and Suture jumped off and headed for the medbay, and the ships returned planetside.

And stayed there.

Anakin was starting to panic again. All the medevacs had happened. And Obi-Wan wasn’t among them. But he  _ knew  _ Obi-Wan had been injured, and he  _ knew _ it was  _ bad _ .

Anakin waited for hours in a terrified vigil in the hangar. He wasn’t able to sleep at all, though a couple people tried to get him to do so, including Gregor. Eventually, Gregor just asked Dimple to sit with him, which was fine by him. Dimple kept busy by telling Anakin facts about the ships around them. It didn’t totally distract him from the fear about Obi-Wan, but it helped.

Finally, the regular evacs started rolling in. Each one that opened up without Obi-Wan in it made Anakin’s heart sink a little more.

Eventually, the regular evacs started slowing down too. Anakin started panicking again. Maybe—

Maybe Obi-Wan  _ was  _ dead.

Maybe Obi-Wan was dead, and Qui-Gon was dead, and his mom was dead, and Anakin was alone in the galaxy.

The thought was almost too much to bear, and Anakin buried his face into Dimple’s overalls. He wanted his mom. His mom could make everything better, even when things were hopeless. He wanted to be back at home on Tatooine and have his mom hold him in his lap while they hid under the patchy blanket and pretended the galaxy didn’t exist until dinner and there  _ certainly _ wasn’t a war going on in it. He wanted a hug that seemed to promise that things would be okay even though everything seemed like it was falling apart.

Dimple’s arm came down to rest across his shoulders, and his hand squeezed Anakin’s upper arm. It wasn’t much like a hug from his mom at all, but it almost felt like comfort anyway.

It was as the last evac ship was coming in that Anakin suddenly felt Obi-Wan. He bolted up, suddenly elated. Obi-Wan was  _ alive! _

Anakin scrambled to the floor. He raced to the LAAT/i and bounced on his feet as the door opened. No sooner had Obi-Wan stepped down than Anakin was running at him, leaping at him with a desperate, “ _ Obi-Wan _ !”

Obi-Wan stumbled as he caught him, and Anakin felt that ghost pain again. “Obi-Wan! You’re  _ hurt! _ ”

“It’s not that bad,” Obi-Wan lied, lied and Anakin could see how bad of a lie it was, could see the pain on his face and could feel it in the Force and was suddenly angry because Obi-Wan was  _ hurt _ and he was pretending  _ not _ to be!

Anakin would have scolded him, but Kix beat him to it.

“You’re  _ injured _ ?” Medic Kix asked. He grabbed Obi-Wan’s arm and yanked him in the direction of the medbay. It was so sudden and forceful that Anakin had to grip tight or risk falling. “Karking—of course you are.  _ Why  _ didn’t you come to the medical tent?”

Obi-Wan grimaced. “I forgot,” he said.

“You  _ forgot  _ that we had a whole tent set up to treat battle injuries?” Kix asked, disbelievingly. “Despite spending half the night bringing other troopers there?”

“I forgot I was injured,” Obi-Wan corrected. “I was releasing the pain into the Force. I just stopped noticing it after a while. And I was busy.”

Anakin didn’t know Mandalorian, but he was pretty sure Kix then said a bunch of swear words. Angrily, Kix turned his attention to Anakin, and he did his best not to flinch. Kix wasn’t angry at  _ him _ .

“Anakin, if you notice General Kenobi hurt and not coming to the medbay in the future, you tell me or another medic, got it? No exceptions.”

“Yes, sir,” Anakin said.

Obi-Wan sighed, but didn’t argue. Good.

The adrenaline was finally petering out, and he was exhausted by the time they got to the medbay. Carefully, Obi-Wan put Anakin down, and then he let Kix drag him onto a medical cot. Anakin curled up on the visitor’s chair, forgotten, as Kix went back and forth between bossing Obi-Wan around and lecturing him on how he needed to stop hiding injuries from medics because it only made things worse for everybody. He made Obi-Wan take off his armor and tunics, and Anakin saw the injury that he’d felt from space. It was an ugly blaster burn, and Anakin had no  _ idea _ how Obi-Wan could  _ possibly _ tune out the pain from that to the point that he’d completely forgotten it.

Kix cleaned it and slathered some slime on it, being surprisingly gentle considering that he was still passionately lecturing Obi-Wan about the dangers of untreated injuries. Whatever the slime was, it made Obi-Wan flinch, and Anakin felt the ghost pain again before it faded away. It was much more intense when Obi-Wan wasn’t a whole planet away, and Anakin had to blink back reflexive tears for a moment. Water was too precious to waste on tears.

When his vision cleared, Obi-Wan’s ribs were now covered in gauze, and Kix was now looking over the rest of Obi-Wan. There didn’t seem to be any more large injuries, but Kix stuck a few mediplasters on scrapes that he found on Obi-Wan’s arms and legs. Now he was complaining about Commander Cody and how useless he must be to his medics considering that he couldn’t even bother to convince his Jedi that medics were not the enemy and that it was not only okay but actually encouraged to go to them when one had a life-threatening injury.

Obi-Wan didn’t seem to be paying attention. In fact, he seemed about two seconds from passing out.

Kix lectured him for about five more minutes, making final scans and notes while Obi-Wan put his undertunic back on, and then he gently pushed Obi-Wan backwards until he was laying down instead of sitting on the cot.

“You will sleep in here for at least six hours or I’m giving you a sedative,” Medic Kix said. There was no room in his tone for argument. “And when you wake up you’re not allowed to leave unless I  _ personally  _ give the go-ahead. Got it?”

“Yes, sir,” Obi-Wan said tiredly. 

“Don’t call me sir,” the medic said, sounding almost gentle. “You’ve got a higher rank than I do.”

“Yes, Medic Kix,” Obi-Wan corrected automatically.

Anakin waited until Kix left and was so busy with other troopers that he wouldn’t notice what was going on at Obi-Wan’s station, and then climbed up onto the cot. He didn’t want to get in trouble, but his mom had always said it helped to have someone who cared about you close by when you were sick or hurt. And Anakin also needed to make sure that Obi-Wan was really here, and really safe, and Anakin wasn’t going to fall asleep and wake up and find out that Obi-Wan was gone and had never made it back. 

He curled up on Obi-Wan’s left side so he wouldn’t hurt the burn any more than it already was. He squished himself in between Obi-Wan’s ribs and arm, and grabbed onto the soft undertunic. He could hear Obi-Wan’s heartbeat. He was alive. He was safe.

Obi-Wan moved his arm to curl around Anakin, and squeezed his shoulder. “What’s wrong?” he mumbled.

Anakin flinched. Obi-Wan was beat nine ways from Taungsday, and here he was worrying about Anakin!

Still, it wouldn’t do to ignore the question. “I was worried I wouldn’t ever see you again,” he mumbled. “I just knew you were hurt somehow, and I was scared you would die and leave me here alone.”

“I’m sorry,” Obi-Wan said softly. He really did sound like he meant it. “I’m here now.”

“I know,” Anakin said, squirming into a more comfortable position but not letting go of Obi-Wan. 

Obi-Wan needed to get some sleep and stop worrying about Anakin though, or Kix was gonna sedate him. And he wouldn’t stop worrying about Anakin until he was asleep, so Anakin sighed and closed his eyes. He pretended to sleep until Obi-Wan actually fell asleep, which didn’t take very long at all.

Anakin snuggled closer. Obi-Wan was here. Obi-Wan was safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Anakin feels Obi-Wan get shot through their bond and panics because he's worried that Obi-Wan might have been killed. He attempts to seek Obi-Wan out in the Force, but gets caught up in all the pain and death from other troopers, and struggles to deal with that and his panic until the battle is over. Once the battle is over, Captain Gregor gently tries to help calm Anakin down. [return to story]  
> .  
> .  
> .  
> .  
> .  
> .  
> .  
> Anyway, this is a shorter chapter, but I felt that this needed to be by itself. The next chapter is the last chapter! Wow! Can y'all believe we're almost done with this fic?


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle is over. Now, it is time to rest, recover, and plan the next steps.

Ahsoka, Rex, Cody, and Jesse sort of exhaustedly watched Kix drag Obi-Wan to the medbay without interfering. Once they were gone, Ahsoka and Cody stumbled their way to the bridge to tell the Council that the battle was over. The Council said to call back when Obi-Wan was out of the medbay to receive further orders, and then took a few minutes to make sure that she and Cody were alright. Master Plo, in particular, made sure to express his worry and pride for her before they ended the comm.

Once that was done, Ahsoka and Cody parted ways, and she made her way back to her room and a water shower. The hot water roused Ahsoka from the bleary numbness just enough that she was coherent when she stumbled back out of her quarters with some blankets and over to Jesse, Kix, Hardcase, and Rex’s room.

They hadn’t done this, at the beginning, but after a while the need to cling to someone after a battle was overwhelming. So now, they dumped a bunch of blankets in the middle of the room and curled up in a pile.

Anakin should have been there, but his absence wasn’t as unusual as it could have been. He was in the medbay almost as often as Master Obi-Wan was.

Dangerous position, being the biggest target on a battlefield.

Kix wasn’t here either, but he never was. Currently, he was helping in the medbay. When he got too exhausted to keep going—well, the medics did the same thing that Ahsoka and her officers were doing, just in a warm corner of the medbay.

And Hardcase was in the medbay as well.

Jesse caught her in a hug as she walked in, and his firm grip was a grounding force. She clung back for several long moments, neither of them moving, just clinging to the fact that they were still alive, still here when so many were already marching ahead, and more would join them by the end of the night. She was too tired to break down tonight, but she wasn’t strong enough to pull away either.

“Come on, kid,” Jesse finally said. “You need some sleep.”

He pulled back and pulled her to the pile. She saw Fives there too, clinging to Rex the way she’d been clinging to Jesse. Ahsoka practically collapsed into the pile, and Jesse tossed a few blankets in the general direction of being on top of all of them.

Nobody spoke. Everyone just held close together, a physical reminder that they weren’t alone, that there were other survivors. And one by one, they dropped off as the exhaustion finally took its toll.

It was nearly eleven when Anakin came up to Kix and stood quietly at his side until Kix acknowledged him.

“Morning, cadet,” Kix said with a yawn. He wondered if he should try and get Anakin to go back to sleep. It had been about six hours, which was acceptable for adults, but not optimal for children. Kix himself had only gotten three before the nightmares had left his heart racing too much to get back to sleep. He was on his second caf of the morning, and Coric wasn’t awake to call him a hypocrite for any of it.

Anakin nervously asked for directions to the refresher, and Kix pointed it out. The kid disappeared quickly. 

A mousedroid scurried by, and Kix stopped it with his foot. “Hey. Go fetch the General’s obnoxious astromech and bring him here.”

Personally, Kix didn’t actually have any issues with R2-D2, especially since he kept Anakin out of trouble, but Fixit had a  _ very serious  _ rivalry with the astromech, and what sort of medic would Kix be if he didn’t stand by his coworker in petty office drama? There were very few droids that Kix respected, but Fixit was absolutely one of them.

Several minutes later, R2-D2 came zooming in, shrieking at Fixit in indignation. Kix neatly stepped in front of him. Anakin, he noticed, was coming up behind him.

“Artoo, there are people sleeping here!” Kix hissed. “If you wake them up, especially Kenobi, I will be very disappointed in you.”

R2-D2 grumbled at him, but turned the volume down from an 11 to about a 4.

“Thank you,” Kix said.

“Hi Artoo!” Anakin chirped.

R2-D2 whistled a greeting.

“Artoo, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like you to take the General to the mess hall. Lunch should be just starting.”

Anakin got a  _ look _ on his face, the one that said he didn’t understand something, but didn’t want to look stupid by asking.

“If you have a question, I’d just like to say that medics take an oath of confidence and don’t usually gossip about the things their patients say to them,” Kix said mildly. 

“Am I a patient?” Anakin asked.

“Everyone on this ship is my patient. That means you, too,” Kix said.

“Oh, okay,” Anakin said. He debated with himself for a moment, then shook his head. “I don’t have a question.”

“Alright,” Kix said. “If you find that you  _ do _ have questions though, about anything, you can always ask me.”

Anakin nodded slowly. “‘Medics are your friends,’” he quoted.

“That’s right,” Kix said. “Go get some food. I don’t want anyone to be hungry on my ship.”

The fact that such a simple statement (one that he said all the time, especially to Jedi) threw Anakin off so much hurt Kix’s soul. He sighed as the kid left the medbay, trailing behind R2-D2.

Kix made his rounds as troopers started waking up. It was easier, the morning after. Most of the triage had already happened, so the troopers who would survive were pretty much stable, and the troopers who wouldn’t...well, they hadn’t.

“Hey Doc,” Hardcase mumbled as Kix stopped by. He wasn’t  _ quite _ awake, but he wasn’t asleep either. “You look awful. When does your shift end, you definitely need sleep.”

“I got some sleep,” Kix said, firing up his scanners. “I’ll get around to getting some more once Coric’s up, but if he’s sleeping, I’m not going to wake him up for anything short of a Code Aurek. How’s your hand?”

“Lots better than it was earlier,” Hardcase said. “How long does the cast have to stay on?”

“A week, as long as you don’t do anything else to kriff your hand up,” Kix said dryly, making sure Hardcase’s hand hadn’t developed any complications in the last six hours. “Punching droids is  _ still _ not combat protocol, no matter what the Marshal Commander does.”

“Yeah, but it looks cool,” Hardcase said, then burst out laughing at the  _ look _ Kix gave him. “How does he manage it, do you think? You notice  _ he’s  _ not in here with a broken hand.”

“Reinforced armor, probably,” Kix said. “He  _ is _ a CC.”

“Yeah,” Hardcase said with a dramatic sigh, looking wistfully into the distance. He was probably already imagining a dozen different ways to get his hands on reinforced armor.

Kix clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t get into any trouble until I’m off shift,” he said.

“What about Coric’s shift?” Hardcase joked.

“If you want to test Coric’s patience,  _ definitely  _ make sure I’m not on shift,” Kix said, almost smiling.

Hardcase grinned and tapped a bracer against Kix’s own, and then Kix moved on to the next trooper.

Kix went back and forth, tending to the duties he’d been decanted to be good at. He redressed wounds, comforted brothers, and reapplied bacta. Several times he turned away officers, especially from the 212th, because work  _ wasn’t allowed in the medbay, dammit, _ and he wasn’t going to let anyone stress out his patients, and he  _ definitely  _ wasn’t going to let anyone wake them up if they were sleeping.

Especially Kenobi. Kix wasn’t Kenobi’s usual medic, but he heard horror stories often enough from Bones when they had the opportunity to drink together. Waxer and Cody could suck it up and wait until Kenobi had slept to his heart’s content before they got him started on paperwork again. And it would  _ only _ be paperwork. Kix was going to mandate light-duty for at  _ least  _ twenty-four hours, and he’d enlist Suture to help him if necessary. 

When Anakin showed back up to the medbay, he was wearing tunics rather than a cadet uniform, and he had a new overtunic for Kenobi bundled in his arms. He quietly set the overtunic on the visitor’s chair, and then stood at the edge of Kenobi’s bed looking lost.

Kix swept Anakin along behind him before the kid worried himself into waking up Kenobi.

“You wanna help me restock field kits?” he asked.

Anakin frowned nervously, but said, “Okay.”

Kix had ten kits for Torrent that needed restocking. It wouldn’t take  _ too _ long, but it would keep the kid busy for a bit, and it needed to be done, and since Coric was finally up and caffeinated Kix had no qualms about leaving him in charge of the medbay for now.

“Okay, I’ve got a list here of everything that should be in the small kits, listed by pocket and aurebeshized, you think you can handle checking the small kits?”

Anakin took the list and looked over it. The nervousness intensified.

“Do you want to do a kit together first, see what it’s supposed to look like?” Kix asked.

Anakin nodded.

“Alright,” Kix said, sitting down and pulling a small kit into his lap. “What’s the first pocket we’re going through?”

“Um,” Anakin said, looking down at the paper. He stared at it for an oddly long amount of time, before saying, “Left?”

“Mm-hm,” Kix said. “Left pocket is the pill pocket. What’s the first one on the list?”

“This one,” Anakin said, pointing at it on the list and showing Kix.

“Go ahead and try and read it out loud,” Kix said. “If you say it wrong, I’ll correct you, but don’t worry, almost no one gets it right on the first try.”

The clear panic on Anakin’s face was unexpected as the kid curled into himself anxiously, staring at the list. Kix was baffled for a moment, then suddenly thought of a reason why Anakin would be so worried about reading a piece of paper.

“You...can’t read, can you?” Kix said.

“I can  _ read _ !” Anakin snapped defensively, crinkling the edges of the flimsi in his hands. “I’m not  _ stupid _ , I just can’t read in  _ Basic _ . I’m from Tatooine, we read  _ Huttese _ there.”

“Okay,” Kix said calmly. Anakin was clearly afraid right now. Kix needed to be a soothing presence, bring the kid back to baseline before he lashed out. “Well, I have to admit that the medbay isn’t  _ usually _ where I’d consider starting a cadet’s aurebesh lessons, but on this ship this may very well be the only place where anything’s aurebeshized, so I suppose we’ll start here anyway.”

Kix had never been in charge of cadets, not really. Medics received a whole extra level of training on top of what everyone else had to learn. They didn’t have time to be helping raise the younger cadets, though a lot of them tried anyway. Kix really didn’t have any experience with children younger than speedies, except for the rare trainings where they’d learned to deal with injuries that cadets had done to themselves on Kamino. Even then, that was medical care. He had a script for that. He had nothing with this except the stories from other medics about their experiences treating refugee children.

But Kix would never give up on his General, and he wasn’t about to start now.

Kix set out the paper in between him and Anakin. “This letter is  _ aurek _ ,” he said, pointing to the first letter of the first word on the list. “Aurek is the first letter of the aurebesh. Aurek is for  _ Anakin _ , and it is also for  _ acetaminophen _ , which is what we’re looking for in the bag. Acetaminophen is good for aches and fevers, and can be used on most humans and near-humans, but  _ not _ on Kiffar. When we’re looking for it in the bag, it’s going to be in a pink bottle. There’s two pink bottles, so make sure that you look at the label. If the big letters start with an aurek, then that’s acetaminophen. If they  _ don’t _ start with an aurek, then they start with a dorn, and you have diphenhydramine. We’ll get to that in a minute.”

Restocking kits took quite a bit longer than Kix had expected it to, but he found that he didn’t really mind. It was a challenge, figuring out how best to explain the things in the kits to someone who couldn’t read Basic, but Anakin was so determined to learn it and be helpful that Kix was equally determined to teach him and prove to Anakin that he was always safe in the medbay.

Once they were done with the kits, Kix needed to do another round of checkups for troopers who hadn’t been awake for the first one, and he convinced Anakin to take a nap since he’d only slept for six hours and Kenobi was still sleeping anyway.

When he’d finished with that, it was nearly time for dinner, and both Kenobi and Anakin were awake. Time to see if Kenobi could be released, he supposed.

“General Kenobi,” Kix greeted.

“Medic Kix,” Kenobi said.

“Hi Medic Kix,” Anakin said brightly.

“Hi Anakin,” Kix said with a small smile. “How are you feeling, General?”

“Fine, thank you,” Kenobi said.

“That’s good,” Kix said pleasantly. “How are you feeling, General?”

Kenobi seemed caught off-guard that Kix repeated the question.

“Much better than I did when I arrived on board,” Kenobi said slowly, watching to see if that was an acceptable answer. “I suppose it’s still a bit sore, though.”

Kix nodded thoughtfully. “Good,” he said. “Hop down, cadet, I need to check the General’s injuries.”

Anakin slid off the cot and sat on the visitor’s chair. Kenobi pulled his undertunic off, and Kix noticed he was moving  _ exceedingly _ carefully.

“I want to apologize for my behavior this morning,” Kix said as he unwrapped Kenobi’s bandages. “While I don’t disagree with most of the things I said, I shouldn’t have lost my temper with you. In this war, I’ve seen every kind of blaster injury imaginable, and to hear that you’d been shot and didn’t get treatment for who knows how long...it scared me sir, badly, but that doesn’t excuse my unprofessional behavior. It won’t happen again.”

Kenobi seemed even more baffled by the apology, but said, “I accept your apology...and I’m sorry for scaring you. I’ll try not to do so in the future.”

“Thank you, sir,” Kix said.

There was awkward silence for a minute as Kix finished carefully unwrapping the old bandages. Finally, Kenobi asked, “What time is it?”

“Nearly eighteen-hundred,” Kix said.

Kenobi frowned. “I thought you only wanted me to sleep for six hours.” He sounded a bit annoyed.

“At  _ least _ six hours,” Kix said, unrepentant. “More is better. Harder for a patient to disturb the healing process if they’re sleeping.”

Kenobi looked like he was about to argue. Kix didn’t let him.

“Just look at this,” he said, gesturing to Kenobi’s injury. The bacta had done a frankly astonishing amount of healing, and what had been cause for alarm this morning was now at both ‘manageable’ and ‘bearable’ levels. “It wouldn’t look nearly so nice if you’d been up running yourself ragged.”

Kix ripped open a bacta packet and gently slathered it across the burn. Kenobi flinched when Kix touched him, but he wasn’t gritting his teeth just to bear it the way he had been this morning, so Kix figured the pain levels were much lower as well.

Kix unwrapped some gauze and applied it to the injury. “Now, I  _ might  _ let you out of the medbay,  _ but _ only if you follow my directions exactly. I can and  _ will _ keep you in the medbay for 24 hours if it keeps you from making things worse for yourself.”

Kix made eye contact with the General to make sure he was paying attention. Once he was sure he had Kenobi’s focus, he started wrapping bandages.

“First off, I’ve seen the 212th officers haunting the medbay doors all day. You are  _ not _ allowed to let them convince you into doing anything more strenuous than paperwork. And  _ no _ using the Force.”

Kenobi frowned, but said, “Fine.”

“I’m sure they’re going to tell you that you need to do your after-action reports—”

“After-action reports?” Kenobi asked, panicked in the way that Ahsoka panicked when she remembered she had homework due for Temple classes.

“One verbal, one written, both submitted to the Jedi Council after every conflict,” Kix explained, tying off the bandages. “You are  _ not _ to start on  _ either _ of those reports until you have eaten a full meal, got it?”

“Yes medic,” Kenobi grumbled.

“Anakin,” Kix said. Anakin’s head shot up. “I want you to keep an eye on the General, okay? If he doesn’t follow directions, I need you to come and tell me so he doesn’t hurt himself any more than he already has.”

“Okay!” Anakin said.

Kenobi looked completely offended by that. “I don’t need a  _ minder _ ,” he said.

Kix gave him a  _ look _ that told him exactly what he thought of that. Kenobi hunched defensively, but stopped arguing.

“You go eat before you even  _ think  _ of doing anything else,” Kix said. “You do nothing strenuous for at least twenty-four hours—that means no running, no fighting, no heavy lifting, no Force, and no lightsaber, by the way. You get a full night’s sleep and you  _ don’t  _ let any of your officers bully you into not following my directions. If you do all of that and  _ exactly  _ that, I will allow you to leave the medbay.”

“...Alright,” Kenobi said. “I agree to those terms.”

“Good,” Kix said. “Get dressed and go eat. I have no idea what your last meal was but I’m absolutely certain it’s been too long.”

“Thank you, Medic,” Kenobi said as he reached for his tunics.

Kix had no idea what Kenobi was thanking him for. “Any time,” he said anyway.

Kenobi and Anakin made their way out of the medbay, and with a sigh, Kix turned back to his other duties. He could probably get another hour in before Coric clocked him out. Hypocrisy only went so far among the 501st medics.

He’d do half an hour and then get some rest. He wouldn’t give Coric the satisfaction of a lecture.

Cody was on the bridge making small talk with Gregor when Rex and Ahsoka arrived. They looked as well as could be expected for the morning after a battle, which was to say, not great. He doubted he looked much better. He hadn’t been able to sleep for much more than an hour after returning, and had been doing paperwork on the bridge all morning, except for the short lunch break he’d taken with Gregor. Anakin had been there as well, R2-D2 at his side. He’d been awfully quiet.

As Gregor left to get some sleep and the three of them silently settled into mission reports, Cody supposed that all of them were awfully quiet today.

They worked for quite a while before Obi-Wan showed up, finally released from the medics.

Cody didn’t even notice at first. It wasn’t until he heard Ahsoka call out “Master Obi-Wan!” that he looked up and saw the kid.

“It’s, ah, still Padawan Obi-Wan,” Obi-Wan corrected. He looked worse than he usually did after a trip to the medics—still exhausted from the recovery, moving far more carefully than he usually did, and looking distinctly nervous.

“How are you, General?” Cody asked.

“I’m fine,” Obi-Wan said, which naturally immediately raised Cody’s suspicions. Everyone else’s, too, apparently, considering how Obi-Wan crossed his arms and curled into himself defensively as he said, “If you can’t trust my words, can you at  _ least  _ believe that Medic Kix wouldn’t let me out if I was  _ not  _ fine?”

“Yeah, okay,” Ahsoka said softly, seeing how his hackles had raised. Then, teasingly, she added, “I’ll believe you  _ this _ time.”

They put aside their paperwork and set up the call to the Council. Obi-Wan moved from his defensive curl to his Jedi Serenity Pose, though the tension in his shoulders didn’t decrease even a little.

They had a slightly larger Council today, with Windu, Yoda, Fisto, Gallia, and Shaak Ti. General Koon must have lost signal, though, because he was no longer among the Councillors.

Obi-Wan and Ahsoka bowed, and the Councillors bowed back.

“Kenobi,” Master Windu said, “I’m glad to see you with us. How are you?”

“ The medic cleared me as fine,” Obi-Wan said.

“Hmm, and disagree, do you, with the medic’s statement?” Yoda asked.

“Not at all,” Obi-Wan said serenely. “But nobody believes me if I don’t bring up the medical clearance.”

Yoda’s ears twitched in amusement. Cody would have smiled, but he wasn’t wearing his bucket.

They moved onto business. General Fisto, who had apparently been briefing before they commed in, finished describing what was happening on his front and asked for reinforcements. Master Windu promised to see what they could do, but Cody had seen that look on his face often enough to know reinforcements weren’t likely.

General Fisto’s comm unexpectedly cut out. They waited for a few moments to see if he would reconnect, then with a sigh, Windu asked for Obi-Wan’s report.

Obi-Wan was clearly practised at reporting to the Council, but not in the way that he typically did for battle reports. Cody jumped in when he knew that Obi-Wan was missing something that he’d usually say, and Ahsoka added on when Torrent’s activity was relevant, though she’d already given her own report this morning. The Council was clearly relieved that this had been a success, rather than another horrific setback. Cody figured that based on what he’d heard of everyone else’s reports, they’d be shipping out soon to provide reinforcements to someone else.

Once Obi-Wan was finished, Windu reported that he and his men were also just finishing up on their front and as long as everything went according to plan, he would be going to aid Fisto once they’d secured the area. Everyone agreed that was a good idea, and then Yoda turned back to Obi-Wan.

“A cure, have you found, for your predicament?”

Obi-Wan shook his head. “A few leads, but nothing solid.”

“Hmm,” Yoda said. “The artifact, I feel you will need. With Dooku, we believe it is. On Sevarcos, you will find him.”

“You think that having the artifact will help figure out how to reverse this?”

“Without the artifact, I feel, unable you will be  _ to _ reverse it.”

Obi-Wan bowed in acceptance.

“Take Commander Cody with you,” Master Windu said. “You may need backup.”

“But that would leave the 212th without  _ both  _ it’s leaders!” Obi-Wan said, then winced, as though he expected a rebuke for saying that.

“You’re currently not in active combat,” Windu said. “Padawan Tano can take over while you retrieve the artifact. But with Skywalker out of commission, Cody’s your best backup.”

“Speaking of, what about Anakin?” Obi-Wan asked.

“Leave him with Padawan Tano. It should be safe enough.”

Both Obi-Wan and Ahsoka looked like they disagreed with that. Before Obi-Wan could say anything either way, Ahsoka said, “Master Windu, this is a  _ war zone! _ Surely it would be better to take Anakin back to the Temple?”

“Too long, that would take,” Yoda said. “Halfway across the galaxy, you are. To stay close to Obi-Wan, you must, so that more quickly the cure can be administered and Master Skywalker returned to a normal state.”

Ahsoka didn’t agree, but Cody knew she wouldn’t argue with Yoda. “Yes, Master Yoda,” she said, giving a stiff bow.

After a few more short discussions, the meeting ended, and Cody allowed himself a sigh before checking on the kids. Both of them had near-identical expressions, ones that said they were feeling completely in over their heads. Time to divide and conquer, he supposed. They didn’t have much time, so he’d send Obi-Wan off to deal with later, and work on Ahsoka now.

“We’ll leave tomorrow morning, General,” Cody said. “Get some rest and pack your things. Commander Tano and I need to discuss how to handle things while we’re gone.”

Obi-Wan nodded, turning to leave. Once he was gone, Cody collapsed into the chair he’d been sitting in before the meeting. Ahsoka mimicked him.

“Rex, you still awake?”

“Mm-hmm,” Rex said unconvincingly. Even the audio filters of his helmet couldn’t filter out his exhaustion.

“Gonna need a little more pep from you,  _ vod’ika _ , I want you to pay attention for this.”

Cody didn’t need to see behind that bucket to know that Rex was rolling his eyes at him. He was too much like Wolffe sometimes.

“You and Tano seem to have Torrent command pretty much on lock, so I’m not going to give you any tips on that, except that as Commander, Tano, I want you to delegate most of day-to-day to Rex, because you’re going to be in charge of both the 212th and the 501st. Now, technically, the next person under me is Captain Gregor, and he’s been trained to be able to take over most of what I do, but he’s special forces, and isn’t often with the rest of the 212th, so for all practical purposes, Lieutenant Waxer is my second-in-command. You’ll want to work with them both, and again, you can delegate most of the day-to-day to them. I’ll let them know what’s going on before I leave tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Ahsoka said, now looking far more worried and overwhelmed than she did before. Rex leaned forward and gave her a squeeze on the shoulder. Cody was glad she had Rex to help her. His little brother was a pain in the  _ shebs _ sometimes, but he was a good kid. He’d help Ahsoka get through this just fine.

“Now,” Cody said, settling in for a crash course in commanding multiple battalions. “You are not going to get into any battles, but if you  _ do _ , here’s what you’re going to do.”

Obi-Wan saw that it was getting close to crècheling curfew and decided to find his little Padawan. Years of chasing after Quinlan and Siri had made him very good at tracking people in the Force, so it was just a matter of sensing Anakin’s Force signature and playing Hot and Cold until he found the boy. Anakin was incredibly easy for him to locate in the Force; Obi-Wan assumed he was just so bright that anyone would be able to track him. He had no idea how Anakin hadn’t been found before Qui-Gon had discovered him.

He came to some sort of training room, and saw that they had an obstacle course set up. Obi-Wan couldn’t figure out the rules of the game, but Anakin was scrambling through the course, someone’s helmet in his arms, while two troopers chased him and several other troopers threw brightly colored balls at them. As Anakin darted around another trooper, that trooper leaped to tackle the ones chasing Anakin, and the three of them tumbled off the short tower onto the mats below. Anakin seemed to already instinctively use the Force a little, as he was always just quick enough to evade the flying balls. 

Obi-Wan watched as the troopers and Anakin ran back and forth across the obstacle course, a small smile on his face. He was glad that they could find some fun.

Eventually, Anakin noticed him there, and with a screech of, “Obi-Wan!” he was tossing the helmet to a teammate and sliding off the tower of mats that he’d been on. Obi-Wan was treated to a flying hug much like the one he’d gotten this morning before going to the medics. Thankfully, this one hurt much less, though he still winced a little.

“Hello, Anakin,” Obi-Wan said.

“You should come play with us!” Anakin said brightly. “It’s super fun, and Jesse’s team is the  _ best _ . The rules are really easy too, and Fives said that things get  _ super wizard  _ when actual trained Jedi play!”

“I’d love to, but not today, Ani,” Obi-Wan said. “I think the medics would be very unhappy if I played flying deathball specifically after I was told to take it easy for at least twenty-four hours.”

Anakin frowned but said, “Yeah, okay. You’re supposed to listen to Medic Kix.”

“That’s right,” Obi-Wan said.

“So what are you down here for?” Anakin asked. “Just to watch?”

“A little bit,” Obi-Wan said. “But I’m also about to go to bed, so I thought I’d come ask you whether you want to sleep in your own room tonight or in mine again.”

“Yours,” Anakin said immediately, and then flinched like he was worried about a rejection.

“Alright,” Obi-Wan said. “Do you want to play for ten more minutes, or do you want to say goodbye now and just head up?”

“I’ll say goodbye now,” Anakin said, and slipped out of Obi-Wan’s arms to run back towards the troopers. It took about five minutes for him to say goodbye, and there were a lot of disappointed noises and hair ruffling, but finally Anakin came back and immediately latched onto Obi-Wan’s hand.

“How was the Council Meeting?” Anakin asked.

“It went fine,” Obi-Wan said. “Much less fun than flying deathball, though.”

“Are we going to Coruscant now?”

“Ah. No, not yet,” Obi-Wan said hesitantly. “The Council needs me to find the Sith artifact that caused this before we go back to Coruscant.”

“Well, where is it?”

“They believe it’s on Sevarcos.”

“The  _ spice _ planet?”

Why,  _ why _ did Anakin know that?

“Yes, the spice planet. Though I’m sure they have more than  _ just _ spice mines there.”

“Yeah, they probably have slavers and smugglers, too,” Anakin said bitterly. 

Alright. Obi-Wan supposed that was a fair assumption. Kessel wasn’t known for much more than that either.

The remainder of the walk to Obi-Wan’s room was quiet. Anakin was lost in thought about something, and Obi-Wan was content to let him think. He had a feeling that this conversation would very much upset Anakin, and he wasn’t looking forward to it at all.

Once they had entered Obi-Wan’s quarters, and the door shut behind them, Anakin took a deep breath. “I want to go with you,” he said.

“No,” Obi-Wan said. It was a firm no, not one to be argued with.

Anakin decided to argue anyway.

“Why  _ not? _ ” he asked.

“Because first of all, the Council said that you and Ahsoka are supposed to stay here where it’s safer, and second of all, I’m not bringing a child behind enemy lines and onto a spice planet full of smugglers.”

“I’m not a child! I’m almost ten!”

“And I’m sure that seems very grown up to you, but trust me, you’re still too young for espionage.”

“ _ Qui-Gon _ would let me go,” Anakin said.

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he regretted them.

Obi-Wan didn’t snap at him this time, but he did look hurt, and a little annoyed.

“I don’t think even Qui-Gon would take a nine-year-old on a mission like this,” Obi-Wan said dryly. “Ani, you barely know how to use the Force. You have  _ no _ lightsaber training, and I don’t think you even know how to use a blaster. If something happens to me and Cody, you don’t have the training to protect yourself, and I  _ won’t _ put you in a situation like that. You’re staying here.”

Anakin wanted to argue, wanted to tell Obi-Wan how scared he was that if he didn’t go, something bad would happen to Obi-Wan and he would die, but the words stuck in his throat. Instead, he crossed his arms and looked down at the ground, blinking back tears.

Obi-Wan sighed, and gently squeezed one of Anakin’s shoulders. “We’ll talk more in the morning,” he said. “Go on ahead to bed, I’m going to take a shower.”

“And then  _ actually  _ sleep?” Anakin asked. It was a bit more accusing than he’d meant.

“And then  _ actually  _ sleep,” Obi-Wan confirmed. “Or I’m sure you’ll tell Kix about it.”

Anakin glanced up. His gut said Obi-Wan was telling the truth, but it didn’t hurt to look at his face too. Warily, Anakin moved towards Obi-Wan’s bedroom. If he didn’t go to bed by the time Anakin was sleepy, then Anakin would just have to figure something out.

After a few minutes, Anakin heard the whine of the sonic, and then the buzz of something else. Then there was silence for several minutes, and just when Anakin thought he might have to check on Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan showed up, flopping onto the bed facedown with an “oof.”

“Night Ani,” Obi-Wan mumbled into the pillow.

“Night Obi-Wan,” Anakin said, tugging a blanket out so that it covered Obi-Wan too. 

He scooted over to cling to Obi-Wan’s tunic, mindful of his burn. Obi-Wan was here. Obi-Wan was here, and Obi-Wan was safe.

Anakin clung tighter. This time, he wouldn’t let Obi-Wan disappear while he was sleeping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D
> 
> Can y'all believe this fic is done?? Lmao it's a bit longer than eight chapters, but I think it turned out better for it. 
> 
> I haven't finished with the rough draft of the next fic yet, so the _Padawan At War_ series will probably not be back until late November or December, but I am doing Whumptober, so if that interests you, I will be posting Star Wars stories pretty much every day this month.
> 
> Thanks for sticking with me on this! I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
